The Material Culture of Difficult Histories

The vast majority of people throughout history have left few traces, if any, in written form. How do we return humanity to the people who didn’t—or couldn’t—leave written records? Specifically, how do we do this for those who were brutally forced from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and swiftly imprisoned, enslaved, or murdered? This volume examines the role of materiality and things in the study of difficult histories, demonstrating how new knowledge can be provided about the archivally forsaken and the ways in which suppressed or forgotten narratives can be forefronted via conservation, curation, community outreach, digital technologies, and art. The volume uniquely brings together anthropologists, archaeologists, artists, historians, conservation scientists, and philosophers to grapple with methodological and ethical difficulties relating to the collection, conservation, storage, and display of the objects. Through case studies spanning the Holocaust; genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Kurdistan; the incarceration of Japanese Americans; and a diverse range of crimes committed against Native Americans, African Americans, Roma and Sinti people, the authors show the potential of using material culture to unravel and present difficult histories.