Author Description

"The Spice Islands - for centuries, this was the name under which the western hemisphere perceived the Indonesian archipelago of the Moluccas (Maluku), an island world with many cultures that remained largely undocumented where it lay outside colonial commercial interests, and which sank into obscurity as interest in nutmeg and cloves wanted.In this volume, Indonesian, Austrian and Dutch scientists have set themselves the goal of studying the points of contact in the history of the collections of two museums, Siwalima Museum in Ambon and the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna. This intercultural cooperation focuses on the common heritage of ethnographic objects, many of which have vanished from everyday life in their source cultures, and makes this heritage more accessible. This book thus documents the earliest Moluccas collections of the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, including that of a prominent world traveler: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este, who dropped anchor in Ambon (Central Moluccas) in 1893, where the Dutch resident, Baron van Hoëvell presented him with a collection of more than 1000 objects.Founded in 1973 in Ambon, the largest city on the Moluccas, Siwalima Museum also has a high-quality collection of ethnographic objects from the Moluccas and manages to create a connection with the present, especially with the more recent objects. Like the objects preserved in Ambon and Vienna, the existing knowledge about these objects in the source regions is an untapped treasure that could strengthen the cultural identity in Maluku. The transfer of cultural knowledge significantly increases the importance of the museum collections.In keeping with the fundamental intention of the project "Sharing Cultural Memory", this volume, with many never-before published objects, is dedicated to the people and cultures of the Moluccas."--