While decolonisation and restitution policies are currently at the core of intense public and scholarly debates, 19th and 20th century missionary collections and museums have recently emerged as a relevant object of interdisciplinary investigation. At stake are dynamics of acquisition and monopolisation of indigenous artefacts, their paths of mobility and circulation across the worlds, evaluation practices, transformation of meanings and displaying associated with colonial propaganda, and confessional education.

Against this background, Missionary collecting, a «Quaderni Storici» monographical issue edited by Sabina Brevaglieri, aims, first of all, at redefining the missionary material engagement as an object of investigation. This project sets an ambitious research agenda based on historical work and an interdisciplinary approach grounded upon two major premises. On the one hand, missionary practices of attention to indigenous objects and multiple forms of artefact translocation and re-sedimentation appear to be a long-lasting phenomenon to be mapped from the early 16th century, well before the invention of the museum as a modern institution. On the other hand, collecting practices were integral to a missionary engagement oriented to conversion, intertwining with a consistent missionary duty of knowledge.

Further information can be found here.