Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage and Applied Anthropology Option)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Kelly J. Dixon

Commitee Members

John Douglas, Douglas MacDonald, Kathryn Shanley, Karla Bird

Keywords

Colonialism and Imperialism, Community - Museum Engagement, Cultural Objects Trafficking, Heritage Narratives, Indigenous Knowledge and Governance, Repatriation

Abstract

A cultural object is to heritage as heritage is to wellbeing. The disruption of societal wellbeing is linked to systems of injustices perpetrated largely by European colonists that involved the pillaging of cultural belongings from colonized communities. This fostered an environment that created today’s global menace of illicit trafficking of such cultural belongings, with accompanying institutional injustices that came with establishing Western museums. The injustices lie in an abundance of museum ethics and practices: categorizing, labeling, and exhibiting heritage, which for centuries, dishonored and undermined Indigenous / traditional cultural ways and practices properly associated with the symbolic significance and purposes of these cultural objects, from their context. The impacts of such practices and colonial worldviews have caused centuries of intergenerational trauma built up from the loss of people’s ways of life linked to these lost cultural objects. The road to healing has indeed been long, but never an impossible one. Today’s pathways to healing reveal people’s ability to move away from victim narratives, to institutionalize traditional stewardship of cultural objects, and to call for a governance system rooted in the multiplicity of knowledge, worldviews, and understanding of the essence and esprit d’être of cultural objects.

Such changes are fundamentally dependent on the sustainability of their intangible cultural heritage. This research argues that the variations in perspectives on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) have impacts on the global fight against illicit trafficking of cultural objects with direct and indirect consequences on the wellbeing of affected communities. Underpinned by the socio-cultural values (living heritage) that shaped each society, museums with questionable acquisition holdings must reevaluate their relevance and engagement with communities to enhance wellbeing through active repatriation. Here, museums must be conscious that words matter in museum - community engagements for successful repatriation and stewardship. Without undermining the pain of others, repatriation can help people heal, move on, and thus, make museums relevant. Equally revealing the importance of cultural affinity and how national laws impede legal frameworks for this fight, the study validates the centralization of community needs using the UNESCO 2003 Convention as an alternative legal framework that offers a better approach.

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© Copyright 2026 Elizabeth Matilda Abena Mantebeah