10.17192/mjr.2024.25.8697 Rodemeier, Susanne Susanne Rodemeier Research on the historical, cultural and religious significance of a religious object in a museum Marburg Journal of Religion : Vol 25 No 1 (2024) Philipps-Universität Marburg 2024 Nias Christian missionary repatriation museum Indonesia ancestor figure Institute for Comparative Cultural Research - Study of Religions and Anthropology 2024-03-25 2024-03-21 en JournalArticle https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2024/321/8697 urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2024-321-86975 https://doi.org/10.17192/ https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2024/321/8697/8697.png 1612-2941 application/pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 The focus of this article is an ancestor figure from Nias, western Indonesia, which has been in the Museum of Religions of the Philipps University Marburg since 1932. A missionary from the Rhenish Mission Society Barmen-Wuppertal, Johannes Noll, gave it to the collection on permanent loan at a time when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony. Essentially, my research has two principal foci. One focus is on the Museum of Religions’ archive in Marburg and the missionary who donated the object to the Museum. The other focus is on the island of Nias, where I conducted research for two weeks in March 2023. I was particularly interested in how the time in which ancestor figures disappeared from everyday life and rituals is remembered today. It was a time when the people of Nias had adopted the Christian faith. A third focus of my research was to find out if there is still interest in such figures and whether there is hope of their repatriation. The article opens insight in object studies in the field of religion. 1612-2941 Marburg Journal of Religion Vol 25 No 1 (2024)