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The Ethnographic Collection’s Holdings

Show gallery

The Ethnographic Collection features about 6,000 ethnographic objects and artifacts from all over the world, as well as about 12,000 photos and slides. Most objects are the result of recent ethnological research. A smaller portion is older and originates from the Wiesbaden Collection of Antiquities from the House of Nassau. Some isolated pieces date as far back as Ancient Egypt. The Collection also comprises the estate of South America explorer Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924).

The regional focus of the division is reflected in the Collection objects that predominantly originate from South and Central America. The most important collections from these regions comprise objects from the Canela in Northwest Brazil, objects from the Aché in Paraguay, the wool pictures from the Huichol and a collection of shrines from predominantly Afro-American religions.

Collections from Africa comprise, for example, a collection of statuettes and pictures from Sierra Leone, and a Yoruba collection from Nigeria. Other regions in the world are represented with fewer objects.

The majority of the Ethnographic Collection's holdings are housed in a magazine at Rudolf-Bultmann-Straße. A showroom allows an insight into the diversity of the collection and presents some of its highlights. In the building of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Deutschhausstraße), temporary exhibitions and photo exhibitions are also held, which are created with the participation of students.