Access to Waxes – The Collections from the Arab World of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv: Between Digitization, "Repatriation," and Online Publication

Abstract

The introduction summarizes the key topics of the themed issue "Access to Waxes – The Collections from the Arab World of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv (BPhA)” and its contributions. It discusses the ethical, legal, and technical considerations involved in making these culturally significant but also sensitive recordings from the Arab world accessible to the public, especially in the context of ongoing debates around “decolonization” and cultural restitution.