Chip Colwell: Why museums are returning cultural treasures
奇普柯威爾: 為什麼博物館要把文化寶藏歸還?
Chip Colwell is an archaeologist who tries to answer the tangled question: Who owns the past? Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
又是博物館策展人,
and a museum curator,
back to where they came from.
they're social and educational,
具有社會意義和教育意義,
because of the magic of objects:
我們想像之外的地方。
to gaze upon our human empire of things
visits each year.
have become a battleground.
卻已經變成了戰場。
don't want to see their culture
都不想看到他們的文化
which they have no control over.
而他們無法對其進行掌控。
to their places of origin.
of the Parthenon Marbles,
額爾金大理石雕塑,
held by the British Museum.
from museums everywhere.
刺有花紋的人頭。
to those made by Native Americans.
這些要求顯得微不足道。
more than one million artifacts
超過一百萬件手工藝品
of Native American skeletons.
let's start with the War Gods.
咱們先從戰神開始。
of the Zuni tribe in New Mexico.
began to collect them
人類學家開始收集這些木雕,
這些木雕的美麗之處,
of Picasso and Paul Klee,
和保羅克利雕塑的前身,
the modern art movement.
did exactly as it's supposed to
a little-known art form
a terrible crime of cultural violence.
is not a piece of art,
戰神並不是一件藝術品,
in a long ceremony.
能夠將它們歸還,
should be returned.
contradicts the refrain
not just to drive movie plots,
並不只是為了電影情節發展,
of museums for society.
博物館有著無庸置疑的美善,
with the Sonoran Desert's past.
the city's bland strip malls
整排枯燥乏味的商店底下,
just waiting to be discovered.
等待著被發掘。
I started taking archaeology classes
我開始修考古學的課,
even helped me set up my own laboratory
建立我自己的實驗室,
had a dark history.
有著很黑暗的歷史。
became a tool for science,
就變成了科學的工具,
of social and racial hierarchies.
were plundered from graves,
人類遺骨被偷取,
新鮮屍體都被帶走。
came across white graves,
白人的墳墓時,
as specimens on museum shelves.
當作博物館架上的樣本。
boarding schools,
竊取土地、寄宿學校、
were on the cusp of extinction.
在要絕種的關口上。
but the labels don't matter
但這些標籤並不重要,
that over the last century,
were taken from them.
和文化都被奪去了。
through the US Congress,
Native Americans to reclaim
以及人類遺骨。
and human remains from museums.
how a piece of wood can be a living god
會是活生生的神?
會圍繞在骨頭周圍?
especially with DNA,
特別是 DNA 相關的科學,
into the past.
既清楚又深刻的了解。
Frank Norwick declared,
法蘭克‧諾維克所聲稱的:
that benefits all of mankind.
能讓全人類受惠。
歸還給任何人。」
all of this was an enigma
want their heritage back
spend their entire lives
about living ones?
漠不關心呢?
what to do next,
接下來要做什麼,
former prison cell on Robben Island.
曼德拉曾住過的牢房,
a country bridge vast divides
縮小了巨大的鴻溝,
reconciliation.
in the ruins of the past?
斷垣殘壁中種下希望的種子?
自然科學博物館僱用,
of Nature and Science.
many other institutions,
和其他許多其他機構不一樣,
the legacy of museum collecting.
博物館收藏遺產的問題。
the skeletons in our closet,
we met with dozens of tribes
我們會見了數十個部落,
these remains home.
who will receive the remains,
become undertakers,
they had never wanted unearthed.
挖掘出來的已故親戚策劃葬禮。
and our Native partners
和我們的原住民夥伴
of the human remains in the collection.
人類遺骨都重新埋葬了。
hundreds of sacred objects.
that these battles are endless.
這些戰爭是無休止的。
of the museum world.
博物館世界的不變特性了。
more museums with more stuff.
裡面有更多的東西。
in an American public museum
所有被編入目錄中的戰神
目前有 106 個——
beyond the reach of US law,
無法控管到的,
and outside our borders.
以及在美國國界之外。
with a respected religious leader
和一位很受敬重的宗教領袖同行,
named Octavius Seowtewa
名叫奧塔維斯‧西歐特瓦,
in Europe with War Gods.
有戰神的博物館。
with a history of dubious care.
它過去受到的看護備受質疑。
had added chicken feathers to it.
在它上面加上了雞毛。
is now state property
戰神現在是國有財產,
no longer served Zunis
已經不再是祖尼人,
of the objects to the world."
這些物品給予全世界。」
would establish a dangerous precedent
可能會開創一個危險的先例,
claimed by Greece.
to his people empty-handed.
the Ahayu:da so far away.
戰神在那麼遠的地方。
that's missing from a family dinner.
聚會的家人一樣。
their strength is broken."
它們的力量就會被破壞了。」
in Europe and beyond
do not represent the end of museums
並不代表博物館的末日到來,
about one percent
500 cultural items and skeletons,
文化藏品和骸骨之後,
of its total collections.
其總館藏的 99.999%。
with Native Americans
物歸原主的過程,
to share their culture with us.
與我們分享他們的文化。
to visit the returned War Gods.
去參觀了已歸還的戰神。
overlooking beautiful Zuni homeland.
俯瞰美麗的祖尼家園。
by a roofless stone building
of turquoise, cornmeal, shell,
綠松石、玉米粉、貝殼,
true purpose in the world.
在這個世界上真正存在的目的。
the histories that we inherit.
did not pillage ancient graves
並沒有去掠奪古墓
for correcting past mistakes.
修正過去錯誤的責任。
the voiceless objects of our curiosity.
它們只是無法發聲的物品。
to fully understand others' beliefs,
完全了解他人的信仰,
places for living cultures.
變成現存文化之地。
turn lazy circles high above.
懶洋洋地盤旋。
that their culture is not dead and gone
他們的文化不會消亡,
for the War Gods to be.
還有什麼地方比那兒更好呢?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chip Colwell - Archaeologist, museum curatorChip Colwell is an archaeologist who tries to answer the tangled question: Who owns the past?
Why you should listen
Chip Colwell is an archaeologist and museum curator who has published 11 books that invite us to rethink how Native American history is told. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian and TIME, while his research has been highlighted in the New York Times, BBC, Forbes and elsewhere. Most recently, he wrote Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture, which The Wall Street Journal dubbed "a careful and intelligent chronicle" and won a 2018 Colorado Book Award.
In 1990, Colwell fell in love with archaeology. Still in high school, he decided to make a life for himself discovering ancient windswept ruins across the American Southwest. But in college he discovered that archaeologists have not always treated Native Americans with respect. In museums were thousands of Native American skeletons, grave goods and sacred objects -- taken with the consent of Native communities. Disheartened, he planned to leave the field he revered. But an epiphany struck that instead he should help develop a new movement in archaeology and museums based on the dignity and rights of Native Americans.
When Colwell was hired as a curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, he had the chance to address the dark legacies of museum collecting. He and his colleagues began consulting with hundreds of tribes about the return of skeletons and sacred objects. In this work, Colwell realized, too, there was an important story to share that explored vital questions. Why do museums collect so many things? Why is it offensive to some that museums exhibit human remains and religious items? What are the legal rights of museums -- and the moral claims of tribes? What do we lose when artifacts go home? And what do we gain?
Chip Colwell | Speaker | TED.com