The Keepers of Memory and the Providers of Knowledge: Cultural Heritage in the Contemporary Ethnological Museum

Abstract

Kakšne ustanove so sodobni etnološki muzeji? V kolikšni meri so to (še) zakladnice predmetov iz preteklega vsakdanjika etničnih skupin in narodov in kot taki čuvarji spomina na preteklost? Sodobne prakse in pogledi kažejo, da si v etnoloških muzejih v Evropi prizadevajo za reinterpretacije njihovih zbirk, vse bolj pa je v ospredju njihovega delovanja sintagma medkulturni dialog. Ob tem pa nosilci muzejske dejavnosti vse pogosteje namenoma spregledujejo družbeno kulturni kontekst zbirk, namesto katerega zaradi želje po pridobivanju večjega števila obiskovalcev in večje konkurenčnosti z umetnostnimi muzeji izpostavljajo predvsem njihove estetske vidike.

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How may we characterize the institution of the modern ethnological museum? To what extent do they continue to be treasuries of objects from the past everyday life of ethnic groups and peoples, and as such keepers of our memory of the past? Ethnological museums demonstrate with their modern practices and views that they endeavour to reinterpret their collections, and their operation focuses increasingly on cultural dialogue. In doing so, museum workers often deliberately overlook the social and cultural contexts of their collections and instead greatly emphasize their aesthetic aspects in order to increase visitor numbers and to better compete with art museums.