Possessing Culture

Recent British museological research has paid little tribute to the rich and impressive German collections proudly exhibited at the turn of the twentieth century. With the annexation of German New Guinea in 1884, museums turned to this colony as a unique opportunity to augment their collections and their exhibits. The political culture that endorsed collection as part of the colonial process and the competition that arose between curators and directors of the museums encouraged the acquisition of thousands of artefacts. Financiers were wooed, politicians persuaded and individuals encouraged to back museum expeditions and their quest to obtain unrivalled collections of objects.Possessing Culture explores the links between collecting expeditions and colonialism using German New Guinea between 1884 and 1914 as a case study. Competition between German cities created a form of museology unknown in more centralized nations, such as Britain and France, and as a result developed a unique colonial culture.
The authors demonstrate through their investigation of collectors such as Wilhelm Wostrack, Hermann Schoede and Bruno Mencke, how the resultant collections played a pivotal role in the German colonial project. They also consider specific collections, such as that made by the Hamburger Sdsee Expedition, which used a ship and a crew of over 70 people to survey the region and amass objects. This expedition obtained many unique artefacts and the authors consider what historical events might be responsible for later collections not acquiring such exceptional collections.Tracing such mysteries, Gosden and Knowles shed new light on the complex histories of colonialism and the often contradictory power relations that it instilled. This absorbing book will appeal to all those interested in anthropology, colonialism and post-colonialism, material culture and museology.