Collection as captivity, things as ancestors: ontological implications of heritage at the Mapuche Museum of Cañete

• Grant number: 21/08174-4
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): March 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal researcher: Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino
• Grantee: Lucas da Costa Maciel
• Supervisor abroad: Magnus Course
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Edinburgh, Scotland
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/00894-5 - "Tame the Museum," or the shamanic politics of postcolonial conflict: the Mapuche Museum of Cañete as an artifact (Wallmapu, Chile), BP.DR

Abstract

This BEPE project is focused on facing the problem concerning the decolonization of museums, paying attention to the process of depatrimonialization of their collections. Taking it from the case of the Mapuche Museum in Cañete, the place where the field research that supports this project is developed, the objective is to provide a detailed description of Mapuche relations regarding subjectification and objectification. This will be done in order to question the colonial regime of property, heritage and collection that intends to transform Mapuche things into objects. In this sense, it starts from a Mapuche point of view to understand and question the policy of ancestral captivity that museum collections imply. Also, this project is interested in researching the patrimony legislation in Chile and in the ethnographic contrast to it that can be drawn from Mapuche relations and thoughts. For this, it follows my interlocutors' style of reflection while thinking about the role of captivity played (or not) by the language of ethnographic description. Finally, it aims to participate in the research activities at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. More specifically, he is interested in the close dialogue and supervision of Dr. Magnus Course, a renowned researcher in the field of Mapuche ethnography.