More about the ‘Sensitive Provenances’ project
The research project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, investigated the provenance of human remains from colonial contexts held in two collections of the University of Göttingen between 2022 and 2024. It also sought to examine the origins of the human remains, the circumstances of their acquisition, their transfer, and their transformation into “objects of knowledge” within academic collections, as well as their use in teaching and research.
The focus was on the Blumenbach Skull Collection and a comprehensive biological-anthropological collection, which was assembled at the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology, now MARKK, between 1890 and the 1920s and transferred to the Department of Anthropology at Göttingen in 1953. An initial review revealed that approximately 1,200 human remains originate from Oceania and Africa.
An interdisciplinary approach
The project brought together expertise from a range of disciplines:
• Historical-critical provenance research based on archival sources
• Anthropological and anatomical analyses
• Ethnographic and socio-cultural anthropological research on research practices
A key element of the project was the involvement of representatives of the communities of origin. The aim was to bring different perspectives on human remains from colonial contexts into dialogue and to integrate these perspectives into the research process.
Fellowships 2022
Researchers from various communities of origin were invited to Göttingen for fellowships lasting two to three months:
• Alma Simba (Tanzania)
• Maximilian Chami (Tanzania)
• Mikael Assilkinga (Cameroon)
• McMichael Mutok (Palau)
• Te Herekiekie Herewini (Aotearoa – New Zealand)
Project management and participating institutions
• Centre for Collection Development (Dr Christian Vogel)
• Chair of Modern History (Professor Rebekka Habermas †, PD Dr Richard Hölzl, Dr Holger Stoecker)
• Institute for Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology (Professor Regina Bendix, Dr Jonatan Kurzwelly, Dr Tarisi Vunidilo)
• Institute for Historical Anthropology and Human Ecology (Dr Susanne Hummel, Dr Birgit Großkopf)
• Centre for Anatomy / Blumenbach Skull Collection (Professor Christoph Viebahn, Dr Katharina Stötzel)
Project Coordination
• Sofia Leikam
Project PR
• Eva Völker
Other project team members
• Professor Dr Michael Schultz
• Lisa Baumann
• Emily Behlert
• Leonie Koch
• Jan zum Mallen
External partners
- Professor Rainer F. Buschmann, CSU Channel Islands
- Professor David Gaimster, Auckland War Memorial Museum
- Professor Ivan Gaskell, Bard Graduate Centre
- Professor Barbara Plankensteiner, MARKK Hamburg
- Professor Philipp Schorch, LMU Munich
Selected publications
• Bendix, R.; Kurzwelly, J. (2021). Custody and custodianship. Anthropology Today, 37(5), 21–24.
• Stoecker, H. (2021). En face und en profil. Fotogeschichte, 41, 63–69.
• Winkelmann, A. et al. (2022). Interdisziplinäre Provenienzforschung. Arthistoricum Heidelberg.
• Chami, M.; Simba, A.; Stoecker, H. (2023). Community Awareness and Restitution. Africa Spectrum, 58(2).
• Kurzwelly, J. (2023). Bones and Injustices. Dialectical Anthropology.
• Stoecker, H.; Stoetzel, K. (2024). Ancestors and Descendants. On Provenance and Repatriation of Ancestral Remains from Hawai'i in Collections of the University of Göttingen, in: Claudia Andratchke/ Charlotte Hoes/ Annekathrin Krieger (eds.): Colonial Dimensions of the Global Wildlife Trade. Proceedings of the international Conference “Colonial Dimensions of the Global Wildlife Trade” Georg August University Göttingen, 28. November 2022, Heidelberg: arthistoricum, p. 238-260.
• Bendix, Regina A. und Jonatan Kurzwelly, eds. (2026). Changing Ethics and Human Remains. Göttingen: Göttingen University Press, Changing Ethics of Human Remains
Workshops and conferences
• 17 Nov 2023: Closing workshop “Changing Ethics in Addressing Human Remains”, Göttingen
• 5 Oct 2023: Internal project closing workshop, Bursfelde
• 19–20 May 2023: Workshop with the National Museum of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam
• 8–10 September 2023: Project workshop at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Events for students
• November 2022: Pacific Week, University of Göttingen
• Presentation and discussion with Tarisi Vunidilo and Te Herekiekie Herewini
