The Khwe Collection in the Academic Legacy of Oswin Köhler: Formation and Potential Future.
Gertrud Boden
- Osaka-JP : National Museum Ethnology, 2018.
- páginas 129-146: ilustraciones blanco y negro.
- Irregular
- no. 99 (2018)
- Senri Ethnological Studies ; no. 99 .
- National Museum of Ethnology Osaka. .
Oswin R. A. Köhler (1911-1996) was one of the most distinguished representatives of the second generation of German professionals of Afrikanistik. His Khwe collection has been built up during more than 30 years of intensive research on Khwe language and culture, and it constitutes a comprehensive documentation, composed of vernacular texts, music, images, objects, and dossiers. Mainly based on the research expeditions and interviews with Khwe, this chapter describes and contextualizes the formation of the collection in relation to Köhler's research interests and program, the contemporary political context, the role of individual Khwe, and the practical or logistic conditions of Köhler's fieldwork. It discusses the implications of the collection's formation process for defining Khwe cultural heritage and argues that a responsible way of dealing with and publishing the collection requires both an academic examination of the context and a dialogue with the Khwe themsevles.