Universities and academic disciplines in general benefited from colonialism and imperialism, differently from, but not necessarily less than, politics, economics and culture. With the “discovery” of New Worlds, from the perspective of the “Old,” the idea of “Possessing Nature” (Findlen, 1994) acquired new urgency.
In this context, the editors are asking: How is the European understanding of scholarship and science reflected in the collections and in the self-image of the academic disciplines? To what extent did scholars from universities
and academies serve the colonial states, providing important information? T
Academic disciplines are facing increasing scrutiny over the extent to which their collections include possibly looted artifacts, thus reviewing holdings and policies as well as studying problematic histories is closely connected.
Staying in constant dialogue may be a challenge but probably the only option, particularly in a cosmopolitan society in which we can understand artifacts and objects as ambassadors of their time.
The issue offers a number of critical views on decolonization and provenance research, case studies of sensitive collections in northern museums and universities, the relevance of indigenous knowledge of the Ka’apor in Brazil, cse studies from Indonesia and the Pacific.
