Work

Consulting the things of the spirits: Evidencing unseen presences in missionary collections

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Contributing to current efforts to grapple with museums' colonial legacies, this article takes the question of evidence as an entry point to unlock the multi‐layered make‐up of African spiritual artifacts in missionary collections. Focussing on Dutch and German missionary collections of legbawo and dzokawo from the Ewe region in Ghana and Togo, we analyze how such artifacts were subjected to “practices of evidencing” by multiple parties over a span of 120 years. These collections enshrine coexisting, clashing ways of evidencing: multiple possibilities of knowing (about) the items, their trajectories, and their relations with humans and other‐than‐human beings. Next to analyzing the missionary and museal frames imposed on these artifacts, we investigate contemporary Ewe religious practitioners' ritual technologies of knowing about the presence, identities, and wishes of spirits as alternative modes of evidencing unseen presences. Pluralizing evidencing, we argue, offers opportunities for decolonial critique and rethinking established museum and research frameworks.

Source: Museum Anthropology

DOI: 10.1111/muan.70002

Authors: Marleen de Witte, Birgit Meyer

Institution: Utrecht University

Language: English

Topic: Cultural Identity and Heritage

Subfield: Archeology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400

Funder: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek