Re-Making Inheritance: Person-Objects Relations and Violent Histories

IIAS Lunch Lecture by Dr Ana Dragojlovic.

Some 60 years after violent decolonization of the Dutch East Indies ‘brought-back kris’ (traditional Indonesian daggers) were reported on acting out in homes of Indisch people living in the Netherlands. Sudden emergence of repetitive laud noises during the night, movements around house associated with sounds produced by sharp weapons and human screams, brought about worrisome dilemmas on how to deal with such an inheritance.

A significant body of anthropological scholarship had convincingly argued for the centrality of human-object entanglement for displaced peoples. Expanding this scholarship I suggest a greater focus is needed on how meanings and quality ascribed to material things can vary and change over time and contexts. Thus, the paper explores under what socio-political and personal circumstances objects that were attributed with stability of secret heirlooms for longer than half of the century become activated and are ascribed agency. This line of inquiry necessitates examination of correlation between inheritance of loss and secretiveness, with accountability for colonial atrocities. Finally, the paper considers how children of survivors of extreme violence engage in reparation of the self through an active process of remaking and reforming inheritance by endorsing novel forms of person-object relationship.

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About IIAS Lunch Lectures

Every third Tuesday of the month (and temporarily also every first Tuesday), one of the IIAS researchers will present his or her work-in-progress in an informal setting to colleagues and other interested attendees. IIAS organises these lunch lectures to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and exchange thoughts and ideas. Lunch is provided by IIAS.