30.04.2024
Ethnologisches Museum
From 22 to 27 April 2024, delegates representing the indigenous Chocholtec people of Oaxaca (Mexico) visited the exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum on display at the Humboldt Forum and its depositories in Berlin-Dahlem.
The visit marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration that, among other things, is intended to ensure that the Chocholtec people have access to the scientific findings that have been amassed concerning one of the highlights of the Ethnologisches Museum’s Mexico collection: the Lienzo Coixtlahuaca II or Lienzo Seler II. The impressive cotton cloth recounts the history of the Coixtlahuaca Valley and adjacent areas in the Mexican state of Oaxaca from the 11th to the 16th century – regions that continue to be inhabited by the Chocholtec people to this day. The document is named after its collector, the scholar of pre-Columbian-era American cultures and former employee of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde (now the Ethnologisches Museum) Eduard Seler, who brought it to Berlin in 1897. In 2017, the Lienzo was published for the very first time in colour with numerous illustrations and subjected to an extensive analysis by ten international experts in line with the most recent findings. It is currently on display as part of the Mesoamerica exhibition on the second floor of the Humboldt Forum.
The delegation’s visit was organised as part of the “Collaborative Museum”, a major joint project between the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, which aims to bring communities of origin into closer contact with the museums’ collections. During the course of the week-long visit, several events were held involving the delegates from the indigenous villages and communities in question and the Mexican textile conservators from the textile conservation department of the Coordinación Nacional de Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural (CNCPC) of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). The exchange was also attended by a number of experts from the fields of linguistics, cultural studies and the natural sciences (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, as well as the Rathgen-Forschungslabor). The workshop not only facilitated discussion of the contents of the Lienzo Coixtlahuaca II / Lienzo Seler II and other Lienzos from the Coixtlahuaca Valley; it also addressed Chocholtec culture as it exists today, as well as questions regarding the conservation of lienzos more generally – and Berlin’s Lienzo Coixtlahuaca II / Lienzo Seler II in particular.
Participating Chocholtec representatives included the president of the Concejo de Gobierno Tradicional del Pueblo Chocholteco Ngigua-Ngiba (Traditional Government Council of the Chocholtec Ngigua-Ngiba People), as well as delegates appointed by the municipal assemblies of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca, Santa María Nativitas, San Miguel Tulancingo, San Jerónimo Otla and San Miguel Tequixtepec. Today, the Chocholtec people live in 19 municipios (municipalities) and 67 Ngigua-Ngiba comunidades (communities) in northern Oaxaca. In pre-Hispanic times, Coixtlahuaca, the main village in the Coixtlahuaca Valley, was one of the most prominent towns in Oaxaca. The history of Coixtlahuaca is documented in 13 known lienzos and codices. However, as a result of pillaging and acquisition, the communities in Mexico are today home to only five lienzos.
A second major workshop is planned for 2025 in Coixtlahuaca, where the preliminary results of the collaboration between the Ethnologisches Museum and local indigenous communities will be presented.