The Distance Between Western Collecting Modalities and Indigenous Practices of Collecting and Conservation

Abstract (English)

This paper examines the following question: In what ways do Indigenous practices of collecting and conservation complicate conventional ideas of conservation, particularly those rooted in museological discourse? This is one of the central questions I address in my ongoing doctoral research, which focuses on the production of body ornaments among the Rikbaktsa, a Macro-Jê speaking Indigenous people from the Brazilian Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest in the world.
My analysis investigates how the Rikbaktsa assemble collections of feathers and shells before crafting body ornaments. I hypothesize that the traditional methods used to collect and preserve these materials, along with the ornament-making process itself, play a crucial role in maintaining a balance between the bodies of community members and the natural environment. These practices are embedded within a holistic Indigenous knowledge system that contributes to the resilience and conservation of socio-biodiversity (Levis et al, 2024).
From this ethnographic case, I broaden the discussion to a more general question: the role of non-Western practices of collecting and conservation, which are often overlooked in theoretical and comparative debates on collecting modalities (Clifford, 1988; Carneiro da Cunha, 2017; Taylor, 2021). Indigenous collecting practices - including those of the Rikbaktsa - differ from Western modalities because they are grounded in a relational ethic with the natural world. In this sense, they offer alternative epistemological and ethical frameworks.
Building on this perspective, I reflect on how such practices might be recognized within museum narratives not merely as cultural expressions but as legitimate forms of knowledge. Recent colloquia on the decolonization of museums and curatorial processes has been raising the question of how to reconnect museological objects with contemporary Indigenous practices. I suggest that acknowledging the epistemological value of Indigenous modes of collecting - and incorporating them into curatorial narratives - represents an ethical commitment to Indigenous ways of knowing and caring and also affirms the agency of these populations in the museum space.