Abstract
Drawing on new materialist and object-centered historical criticism, this article analyses colonial and post-colonial discourses of the Greenlandic figurines of the mythical being of ill-wishing and revenge, tupilak (plural form: tupilait). It focuses on three tupilak figures, made in 1905/1906 by a shaman Mitsivarniannga on a request of a Danish ethnographer William Thalbitzer, which today are part of the Danish National Museum collections. In the early 20th century, Greenlandic tupilait (and Inuit cultural production in general) were an object of fascination among European collectors, artists, and the general public. Asking what these objects had come to mean in (and for) Europe, this article points to marginalized Greenlandic narratives of Mitsivarniannga’s tupilat, and builds a critical narrative of these objects as material effects of the disruptions of indigenous community and sustenance by Western colonialism. Drawing on critical insights from the current post-colonial restitution debates, it problematizes the differential political-economic conditions and relations of power, under which the colonial acquisitions and procurements took place. The article argues that cultural heritage items, such as the three tupilat, are mnemonic ‘boundary objects’ that can potentially forge links between disparate memories of colonialism in Denmark and Greenland.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Raum- und zeitsemantische Oppositionen als Analysekriterium: Beispiellektüren skandinavischer Gedichte (Staffeldt, Ibsen, Christensen, Tranströmer)
- Genkendelse og ønsket om at glemme. Anagnorisis i Morten Borgersens Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) og Wencke Mühleisens Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden (2015)
- Ekokritiska perspektiv i Maria Parrs Keeperen og havet
- The Fleece of the Ram
- Mnemonic ‘Boundary Objects’ and Postcolonial Restitution
- Precursors of Sociolinguistic Typology
- The Gender Incongruency Effect in L3 Swedish due to Imperfect Gender Acquisition in L2 German
- Book Reviews
- Ebba Hjorth (Hauptherausgeberin), Henrik Galberg Jacobsen, Bent Jørgensen, Birgitte Jacobsen, Laurids Kristian Fahl: Dansk Sproghistorie
- Frode Ulvund: Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960: The Construction of Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits as Anti-Citizens and Enemies of Society
- Anne Klara Bom: H. C. Andersen som kulturelt ikon
- Philipp Wagner: Chronotopische Insularitäten. Zur Inseldarstellung in den skandinavischsprachigen Literaturen um 1900 und der Gegenwart
- Erik Zillén: Fabelbruk i svensk tidigmodernitet. En genrehistorisk studie
- Carolin Löher: Dachmarke Literatur. Die Literaturvermittlungsinstitution Literaturhaus in Deutschland und Skandinavien
- Jürgen Hiller: Der Literaturpreis des Nordischen Rates
- Gunilla Hermansson/Jens Lohfert Jørgensen: Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History
- Yves Lenzin: Isländersagas. Verschriftlichung und Politisierung
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Raum- und zeitsemantische Oppositionen als Analysekriterium: Beispiellektüren skandinavischer Gedichte (Staffeldt, Ibsen, Christensen, Tranströmer)
- Genkendelse og ønsket om at glemme. Anagnorisis i Morten Borgersens Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) og Wencke Mühleisens Kanskje det ennå finns en åpen plass i verden (2015)
- Ekokritiska perspektiv i Maria Parrs Keeperen og havet
- The Fleece of the Ram
- Mnemonic ‘Boundary Objects’ and Postcolonial Restitution
- Precursors of Sociolinguistic Typology
- The Gender Incongruency Effect in L3 Swedish due to Imperfect Gender Acquisition in L2 German
- Book Reviews
- Ebba Hjorth (Hauptherausgeberin), Henrik Galberg Jacobsen, Bent Jørgensen, Birgitte Jacobsen, Laurids Kristian Fahl: Dansk Sproghistorie
- Frode Ulvund: Religious Otherness and National Identity in Scandinavia, c. 1790–1960: The Construction of Jews, Mormons, and Jesuits as Anti-Citizens and Enemies of Society
- Anne Klara Bom: H. C. Andersen som kulturelt ikon
- Philipp Wagner: Chronotopische Insularitäten. Zur Inseldarstellung in den skandinavischsprachigen Literaturen um 1900 und der Gegenwart
- Erik Zillén: Fabelbruk i svensk tidigmodernitet. En genrehistorisk studie
- Carolin Löher: Dachmarke Literatur. Die Literaturvermittlungsinstitution Literaturhaus in Deutschland und Skandinavien
- Jürgen Hiller: Der Literaturpreis des Nordischen Rates
- Gunilla Hermansson/Jens Lohfert Jørgensen: Exploring NORDIC COOL in Literary History
- Yves Lenzin: Isländersagas. Verschriftlichung und Politisierung