“Global Bones” is a research project at the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The GLOBO team investigates the global distribution of Christian body relics and explore the locations of human remains for meaning-making process in colonial contact zones in the early modern period. The project describes and analyses the intercontinental routes and networks of relic transfers and examines in five case studies the negotiations and translations that took place between actors of different cultural traditions with respect to body relics.

We focus on the analysis of the material and visual cultures framing human remains. By linking the global perspective with local case studies, GLOBO creates new insights into the distribution, management and valuation of Christian relics, and into the manifold socio-political, cultural and religious roles of human remains in the missionary and colonial contexts of early modern globalisation.