New publication: Dilger, H. (2026). Bringing artifacts (back) to life: Ethnographic collections as affective force. American Ethnologist, 1–15
How can we rethink the relationship between museum objects and the communities and contexts they come from? In his new article Bringing Artifacts (Back) to Life: Ethnographic Collections as Affective Force, Hansjörg Dilger develops a concept that fundamentally reframes ethnographic collections: affective force — a relational intensity that emerges between human and more-than-human actors, unfolds over time, and co-shapes sociomaterial environments. The article appears in the renowned journal American Ethnologist, published by the American Ethnological Society, a section of the American Anthropological Association.
News from Jun 29, 2026
Drawing on years of fieldwork at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin and the Humboldt Forum, Dilger traces the story of the deity Ngonnso — from her violent removal from Cameroon in 1903 to the highly affective encounters that have accompanied her planned return within a transnational space since 2022. The article shows how colonial acquisition and epistemic violence produced disconnections that are now being reworked through collaborative practices and affective contestations — and how questions of vitality and spirituality are inseparably entangled with institutional and political contexts.
We warmly congratulate Hansjörg Dilger on this publication in one of the field's most important journals — and on a contribution that demonstrates how central affect-theoretical perspectives are to current debates on restitution, care, and postcolonial museum practice.