Register for a CSMC lecture

Thursday, 30 May 2024, 6:15 pm – 9:00 pm CEST

Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg, Room 0001 (Pavilion), and online

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The Book as Living Relation

Collaborative Study of Lenape (Delaware) Belongings with Indigenous Communities of Origin

Suzanne Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) 

Princeton University Library, Special Collections - Rare Books 2022-0007N ED

“The Book and the Silk Roads” project, now in its second funded phase under the title “Hidden Stories: New Approaches to the Local and Global History of the Book,” includes nine geographical areas of concentration, one of which is “Great Lakes and Eastern Woodlands.” This area is comprised of collaborative work on books and book-adjacent materials (e.g., land deeds, wampum) with Indigenous communities of origin, primarily members of Lunaape (Lenape or Delaware) tribal nations. While this research field is significant in itself, it also offers methodological insights concerning collaboration, relationality, and the status of the book that inform the “Hidden Stories” project as a whole.
 
This lecture provides a methodological overview of our collaborative approach to Lunaape book history, addressing four case studies: 1) a European printed book, bound in a brain-tanned beaver-skin binding, painted in red and black and with a distinctive binding stitch; 2) manuscripts and printed books produced by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of Moravian communities, central to present-day Lunaape language revitalization; 3) deeds and other land-related documents, of value to present-day Lunaape historical work in support of land claims; 4) wampum associated with Munsee-speaking Lunaape communities currently held in museum collections in North America and Europe. These collaborations have also facilitated work in progress with Anishinaabe communities on a significant birchbark book, which will be described in brief.

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Join the lecture online on ZOOM (no registration needed):

https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/63661451504?pwd=MmJXTDZYOE5HRkRtMk5PUjhtS2U0QT09

Meeting ID: 636 6145 1504
Passcode: 72504918

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Please register to attend in person: