Provenance Research as a Method of Religious Studies: A Plea for the Necessity of Expanding Methods Using the Example of Dolls

Museum collections around the world contain millions of objects related to religion that can be considered classic sources for religious studies. To date, however, there is no method in religious studies for systematically critiquing such objects from museum collections as sources. Religious studies must therefore expand their methods in order to be able to systematically use such objects as sources for their own research. Various examples show that museum objects can only be made accessible for religious studies research with the help of provenance research. The main focus of the selected examples is on dolls with a religious background—or, rather, on museum objects that have been classified as dolls in collections. Using such objects as examples, this article provides insight into the problems of provenance and the resulting consequences. The aim is to use the examples to show how objects find their way into museum collections, what intentions may lie behind the acquisition of such objects, and how and in what context such objects may be presented to the public. The background to such a scientific approach lies in the analysis of the changing perspective on such objects, since the meaning and attribution of an object are never static. Rather, these objects are subject to a permanent change in perspective due to changing social processes. Or they are presented as something they never really were. And all this can be revealed by systematic provenance research. The article is therefore intended as a plea for the expansion of religious studies methods to include provenance research.