Monday, February 3, 2025, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (EST)
Virtual Event
Over the course of the nineteenth and well into the early twentieth century, objects of everyday life from Central Asia were acquired by European travelers to showcase the cultures and traditions of the ethnic groups of this region. Today, these objects are presented in ethnographic collections all over Europe. Including embroideries, carpets, clothing, silver and gold ornaments, ceramics and many other artisan masterpieces, these objects are a testimony to the multi-ethnic diversity of Central Asia, shaping the narrative of the identity of this region as a whole. Central to the workshop is the idea that material culture objects are more than a silent background for the analysis of cultural, social and political changes.
Central Asian masterpieces deserve attention on their own as they constitute the tangible basis of identity, sociality and daily life in Central Asia. By dedicating the workshop to the material culture, we aim at achieving a more comprehensive understanding of Central Asia as a region. At the same time, the case collections of Hungarian ethnographer György Ede Almásy, German ethnographer Richard Karutz, and Suisse explorer Henri Moser will feed into more specific debates about the role of single actors in the creation of these collections, from researchers and travelers to collectors, as well as the historical circumstances that shaped the collections and their researches in the colonial/postcolonial context.
In this workshop we will discuss collections from four European museums: the Landesmuseum Hannover, the Sammlung Kulturen der Welt in Lübeck, the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart and the Historic Museum in Bern. The aim of the workshop is to highlight the richness and diversity of the collections for a wider audience and to initiate a discussion on the past and the present of Central Asian masterpieces in European museums.
This event will be held in English with discussion in English/Russian. Мероприятие пройдет на английском, с вопросами на русском и английском языках
Zoom Link: https://gwu-edu.zoom.us/j/98740040110#success
Speakers
Dr. Lars Frühsorge is an ethnologist and director of the Sammlung Kulturen der Welt in Lübeck since 2018. His main research fields are religion, memory culture, colonialism, and the history of tourism. He has conducted extensive research in North and Middle America and visited about 80 countries around the globe.
Olaf Günther is a Central Asian specialist and works at the Sammlung Kulturen der Welt in Lübeck, since 2025. He focuses on the Collection of Richard Karutz, and he is also consulting others Central Asian collections in order to prepare the 2026 Silk Road exhibition.
Dr. Annette Kramer is an ethnologist and curator of the ethnological collection of the Orient at the Linden Museum Stuttgart.
Dr. Mareike Späth is an ethnologist, curator, and head of the ethnology department at Landesmuseum Hannover. She is a member of the Provenance Research Working Group and has been the spokesperson for the Colonial Provenances Working Group, and she is also active in the Museum Working Group of the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Colonial Contexts Network.
Rahel Wille is an ethnologist and the curator of the ethnographic collection for Ancient Egypt, Asia, Europe, South Pacific at the History museum of Bern.
Moderator
Dr. Snezhana Atanova is Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and Associate Researcher at Constructor University Bremen, Assistant Professor at Nazarbayev University in Astana, and Associate Researcher at IFEAC Bishkek. As an ethnologist, she is exploring material culture of Central Asia in bazaars, private and museum collections in Central Asia and beyond.
Photo Caption: Cushion covers, woven by carpet weaver Aksoltan in 1976. Yomut Turkmen, Turkmenistan. Photograph by S. Atanova
