Viola König: Collector Networks in Guatemala: The early era of German players and the transition to the M.A.R.I. ventures.
Uptown Campus
Dinwiddie Hall
305
For 100 years, M.A.R.I. has been internationally renowned as a center for the study of Guatemalan cultures. Its activities also included building up its own collection. But almost 100 years before, others were being active in Guatemala, above all Germans, who had been granted special rights by the Guatemalan government. These all-encompassing privileges resulted in virtually colonial conditions. On the one hand, German landowners regarded archaeological artifacts as their property; on the other hand, the multidisciplinary German researchers provided impetus and funding for the scientific exploration of Guatemala in the first place. Only a few collections from previous German ownership remained in Guatemala, while significant parts ended up in Germany. As a result of the lost world wars, US-Americans took the place of the Germans in Guatemala, which also had an impact on the M.A.R.I.
Viola König is a Professor of Ancient American Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the Latin American Institute of Freie Universität Berlin and was the former director of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin (2001-2017) and the Übersee-Museum Bremen (1992-2001). One of her research areas focuses on the provenance of museum collections, including the M.A.R.I. collection.
Watch this talk on Zoom: https://tulane.zoom.us/j/93762316734
Lunch Talks invite guest speakers to host seminars at MARI on a wide variety of topics related to the archaeology, history, and ethnography of Mesoamerica and other world areas.
