Knowledge Infrastructures of Extraction & Return:

Ruhr University Bochum | DFG Research Unit “Infrastructure: Aesthetic and Supply”
30 March 2026 | Blue Square, Kortumstr. 90, Bochum

This symposium interrogates knowledge infrastructures not merely as cultural repositories, but as historical logistics of extraction that have moved Indigenous aesthetic objects from the Global South to European institutions. Building on demands for reparation articulated by Kággaba, Mapuche, and Tupinambá representatives during recent dialogues in Lüneburg, we trace the specific «museum journeys»
of these objects and the extractive mechanisms of collectors like Boris Malkin.

A central focus is the friction between the «supply» of artifacts—specifically the collections assembled by Dina and Claude Lévi-Strauss—and the current politics of restitution. We examine the lives and afterlives of these collections to address the epistemological effacement of objects often grouped without criteria in European institutions.

In counterpoint, the workshop highlights Apyãwa-Tapirapé resistance, exploring how «convivial pacts» and the strategic negotiation of ritual objects served as tools for demographic and ritual reestablishment. Finally, Tapirapé ritual specialists themselves address the contemporary fight against extractivism—specifically the agrotoxic threats to their territories —seeking new alliances that transcend the museum to support Indigenous sovereignty and physical survival.

09:30 – 10:00 | Welcome & Introduction
● Dr. Tomaz Amorim and Prof. Dr. Jörn Etzold (Ruhr University Bochum)
10:00 – 12:30 | Panel I: The Museum as Supply Chain & The Politics of Display

● Prof. Dr. Susanne Leeb (Leuphana University Lüneburg) and Laura Sabel (Leuphana University
Lüneburg): Indigenous Encounters with Museological Knowledge Production at the Intersection of Extractive Infrastructures and Future Collaborative Practices The presentation will draw on the experiences of museum visits and a conference that took place in February 2025 at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. The conference “Beyond Restitution: Indigenous Practices, Museums and Heritage” brought together representatives of four Indigenous communities from the South Americas, namely Mapuche (Wallmapu, Chile), Kággaba (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia), Tupinambá (Serra do Padeiro, Bahia, Brazil) and Baniwa (Içana River, Amazonas, Brazil), and museum curators of collections of the Americas. Whereas Susanne Leeb will present some major points of discussion from this gathering, Laura Sabel will focus on a specific case study: The encounter of the Kággaba with their material cultural heritage, which entered museums through Borys Malkin. By addressing the irreconcilability of differing ontologies, she develops a critical perspective on museological knowledge production surrounding the “Tayrona” collections and their unlawful extraction and highlights collaborative approaches with the Organización Gonawindúa Tayrona as potential cooperative (infra)structures for recontextualization and repatriation.

● Prof. Dr. Maria Luísa Lucas (University of São Paulo): The lives and afterlives of Indigenous collections assembled by Dina and Claude Lévi-Strauss in Brazil
In the 1930s, during their time in Brazil, anthropologists Dina and Claude Lévi-Strauss conducted two field expeditions to Indigenous villages, assembling a collection of approximately 2,000 objects. Ninety years later, these artifacts now constitute distinct yet practically identical collections housed at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo and the Musée du Quai Branly
– Jacques Chirac in Paris. While the influence of these fieldwork experiences on the development of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s career is well documented, few studies have investigated the past and future lives of the objects themselves. With this aim, we have been conducting a Franco-Brazilian research project since 2023. Through careful dialogue with communities connected to these artifacts, we facilitated the
travel of a delegation of five Boe (Bororo) individuals to Paris in 2024. Through the consultation of the objects and the crafting of a diadem during a workshop led by Indigenous specialists, we gained a deeper understanding of the Boe’s diverse interpretations regarding the Lévi-Strauss collection, as well as the potential relationships and alliances these objects are capable of engendering today. Although the temporality of collaborative work with source communities frequently conflicts with the institutional timelines of museums, our experience suggests that prioritizing the former can yield compelling research. This holds true both within the museum field and in the formulation of contemporary anthropological theories that view the relationship between South American Indigenous peoples and their collections as an emerging field of inquiry.

12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00 – 16:30 | Panel II: Apyãwa-Tapirapé Resistance, Convivial Pacts and Ritual Resurgence
● Dr. Ana Coutinho (Mecila-Federal University of Rio de Janeiro): Apyãwa-Tapirapé Resistance in
Times of Finitude
After a period of intense depopulation caused by contact with non-Indigenous in the Middle Araguaia region – a contact that triggered devastating epidemics from the early to mid-twentieth century – the Tapirapé-Apyãwa were able to reorganize themselves and resume their ritual activities, as well as ceremonial speeches and chants. During my doctoral research, it became evident how certain memory technologies activated during this period of demographic recovery played a crucial role in enabling rituals to be practiced once again. In the context of my current postdoctoral research, developed through Mecila, I have focused on studying the itineraries of a mask that was produced specifically for sale. This process constituted a collective Indigenous strategy, involving extensive negotiation between humans and non-humans, through which a mask ceased to be ritually effective in order to circulate within museum spaces. A momentary collective and convivial pact took place, combining ritual resurgence and the systematic sale of masks, thus reconciling the systems of the gift and the commodity within the same spatio-temporal frame of the Apyãwa way of life. The aim of this presentation is to outline the historical context of this dual process of “retomada”.

● Paroo’i and Makato Tapirapé: Presentation by Ritual Specialists
The ritual specialists will discuss the context of the sale of these masks in the late 1960s, the memories associated with the buyers – especially Boris Malkin – and the formal choices that resulted in transformations of the masks. The strategy employed at the time emerged as a political–aesthetic assertion of the Tapirapé people during a period of demographic and ritual reestablishment. To conclude the presentation, the Indigenous specialists wish, within the broader research field on extractivism, to discuss the challenges experienced by their people in relation to everyday coexistence with the agrotoxic chemicals used in plantations surrounding the Indigenous Territory. They will also address the importance of ritual ceremonies for protecting their bodies in the face of the threat posed by poison.

16:30 – 17:30 | Closing Roundtable: Re-imagining Knowledge Infrastructures
● All participants: Open discussion on the challenges of reparation. How can academic infrastructures (like this Research Unit) support the logistics and politics of Indigenous sovereignty?
Organization: Tomaz Amorim and Jörn Etzold.