04 Aug 2025  |  Gabriele Herzog-Schröder

Paying a visit to the masked figures of the Tikuna/Magüta

From their ‘Reise in Brasilien’ (1817-20) the zoologist Spix and the botanist Martius brought back to Munich hundreds of ethnographic items. A re-evaluation of historical collections is necessary not only in terms of decolonial obligations, but also with regard to global ecological and climatic challenges. I present a project in which the historic Tikuna masks are reappraised through encounters with contemporary Tikuna/Magüta in Brazil and Colombia, next to Peru. In a recent visit I took steps towards resocialising the historical artefacts by first informing representatives of indigenous museums about the historic masks. We will discuss the chances for collaborations with the Tikuna/Magüta regarding the 200-year-old ethnographic objects in the Museum Fünf Kontinente and explore the possibilities of co-creative approaches which should encourage overcoming the silence in museum deposits. Critical ecological aspects like the region’s severe drought must hereby also be taken into account.

The paper will be given at the XV Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA) on 4-6 August 2025 in Helsinki. The panel "Collaboration and Co-Creation in and Beyond Ethnographic and World Culture Museums: A Path to Resocialization?" is chaired by Claudia Augustat and Matthias Lewy.