Toward De‐Centering Siberian Museum Anthropology

This special issue invites anthropologists, museum curators, scholars in Indigenous studies, Indigenous heritage specialists, and historians of knowledge to reimagine the global geography of Siberian museum collections. These collections have often been overshadowed by the perceived dominance of Russian museum holdings—particularly those housed in major institutions in Saint Petersburg, such as the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) and the Russian Ethnographic Museum. Drawing on extensive archival and field research, as well as theoretical perspectives from diverse intellectual traditions, the contributors critically re‐examine the vast ethnographic collections from Siberia held in museums across the West, primarily in Europe and North America. They argue that these collections have long remained disconnected from their source communities and, paradoxically, position Western museums as “provincial” and yet highly relevant to emerging processes of knowledge (co‐)production. By framing the case studies featured in this special issue within a broader theoretical context, the editors employ the concept of de‐centering to uncover a reimagined geography of museum collections—one that repositions local holdings, Western institutions, and major Russian repositories within a wider, globally integrated landscape of knowledge production.