NOVA FCSH, National Museum of Ethnology & Portuguese Cinematheque | Lisbon

Over recent decades, the debate surrounding restitution has undergone significant developments, giving rise to new protocols and to diverse — and at times ambivalent — political, scientific, and ethical positions. Despite the absence of consensus and the persistence of conceptual turbulence — within a terminological constellation ranging from repatriation to reparation, from return to recovery, or even healing — it is now widely acknowledged that any restitution project may generate unforeseen responses, which do not necessarily entail the physical return of objects to their contexts of origin. Different historical contexts, regimes of value, and ontologies are reflected in complex dialogues between institutions, groups, and individuals seeking multiple forms of what may be designated, by synecdoche, as restitution: not only of “things”, but also of knowledge, words, sounds, and images of ancestors, their encounters and trajectories extensively inscribed in the holdings of anthropology, from museums and archives to libraries. This colloquium aims to deepen the intersections between histories of anthropology and restitutions from a transatlantic perspective, particularly Latin American, characteristic of the International Research Network HITAL (CNRS, France).

Further information and full programme available here.