The Connectedness of Archives: Museums in Brazil and Europe. A conexão dos arquivos: museus no Brasil e na Europa (original) (raw)
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Indiana, 2020
The destruction of the collections at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, which had hosted indigenous material culture gathered over two centuries, spotlighted the importance of early Amazonian collections in European museums. The circulation of objects and knowledge in the 19 th and the early 20 th century is part of a history of interactions within global systems. Epistemological, political, social and economic aspects shaped the collections , following shifting interests related to scientific endeavors, colonization or extractivism, just to name the more common ones. The agents involved in the collecting in the South American Lowlands were scholars from different disciplines, settlers, politicians and traders linked by global interests. The close relationship of the then Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin and the Göteborgs Museum in Gothenburg with the Museu Nacional and other Brazilian institutions since the 1880s is striking, as they mutually engaged in the exchange of objects for major exhibitions and enriched the scientific exchange of knowledge, by sending and interchanging collections. Today, these objects stored in Berlin as well as in Gothenburg, could be incorporated into the reconstruction of the Museu Nacional, or directly could be put in dialogue with communities in the 21 st century. These collections were gathered with many purposes; however, from the beginning in Berlin with Adolf Bastian, and in Gothen-burg with Erland Nordenskiöld, the idea of an archive for the future was a primal one. The question remains, how to handle this 'universal archive' at risk? Resumo: A destruição das coleções do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, que abrigava cultura material indígena reunida ao longo de dois séculos, destacou a importância das anti-gas coleções amazônicas nos museus europeus. A circulação de objetos e conhecimento no século XIX e no início do século XX faz parte de uma história de interações dentro de siste-mas globais. Aspectos epistemológicos, políticos, sociais e econômicos moldaram as coleções, acompanhando as mudanças de interesses relacionados aos empreendimentos científicos, colonização ou extrativismo, apenas para citar os mais comuns. Os agentes envolvidos no colecionismo nas Terras Baixas Sul-Americanas eram acadêmicos de diferentes disciplinas, colonos, políticos e comerciantes conectados por interesses globais. A estreita relação do
The Connectenedness of Archives: Museums in Brazil and Europe
2020
The destruction of the collections at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, which had hosted indigenous material culture gathered over two centuries, spotlighted the importance of early Amazonian collections in European museums. The circulation of objects and knowledge in the 19th and the early 20th century is part of a history of interactions within global systems. Epistemological, political, social and economic aspects shaped the collections, following shifting interests related to scientific endeavors, colonization or extractivism, just to name the more common ones. The agents involved in the collecting in the South American Lowlands were scholars from different disciplines, settlers, politicians and traders linked by global interests. The close relationship of the then Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin and the Goteborgs Museum in Gothenburg with the Museu Nacional and other Brazilian institutions since the 1880s is striking, as they mutually engaged in the exchange of objects for...
The Connectedness of Archives: Museums in Brazil and Europe
2020
The destruction of the collections at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, which had hosted indigenous material culture gathered over two centuries, spotlighted the importance of early Amazonian collections in European museums. The circulation of objects and knowledge in the 19th and the early 20th century is part of a history of interactions within global systems. Epistemological, political, social and economic aspects shaped the collections, following shifting interests related to scientific endeavors, colonization or extractivism, just to name the more common ones. The agents involved in the collecting in the South American Lowlands were scholars from different disciplines, settlers, politicians and traders linked by global interests. The close relationship of the then Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin and the Goteborgs Museum in Gothenburg with the Museu Nacional and other Brazilian institutions since the 1880s is striking, as they mutually engaged in the exchange of objects for...
The Absence of 13 000 Years of Amazonian Cultural History in European Museums
INDIANA Vol. 37, Núm. 2, 2020
In recent decades, archaeological research has revealed Amazonia to be one of the most important centers of plant domestication in the Americas. Its pre-Columbian cultures have been transforming their environment for thousands of years. However, the deep cultural history of Amazonian peoples is mostly absent in the museums of the European capitals, in spite of their claims to be ‘World Museums’. On the other hand, they do hold a large number of ethnographic objects of the Amazon in their collections, completely disproportionate to the small number of archaeological objects. A look at the museum collections of artifacts from the Andean area reveals the exact opposite situation. Reflecting upon this finding, this article analyzes the influence and persistence of the history and ideas behind the collections by focusing on the dichotomy culture/nature, and by investigating the deliberate pre-eminence of certain material and immaterial objects over others. Given that one of the main roles of museums should be the transmission of information and the fact that Amazonia is currently threatened by developmental policies, it is crucially important to visualize the 13 000 years of cultural history of this large area, presenting the ethnographic collections together with their historical depth.
The power of museums with ethnographic collections: two cases in Brazil
International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology Springer, 2024
The Power of Museums" was the General Conference on the central theme of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2022 (Prague). This article aims to discuss the ability of ethnographic collections to combat prejudice and promote freedom, cultural diversity, religious diversity, and democracy, among other aspects of human rights. Here, we propose a theoretical reflection on the power of museums, considering the context of the decolonization of ethnographic collections in Brazil. To illustrate the discussion, we briefly present two recent cases in the country that refer to the appreciation of indigenous, religious, and cultural diversity. The first is related to a photographic collection of indigenous peoples that is part of the Museu Paranaense (MUPA) collection in Curitiba (southern Brazil). The second case involves collections from a group of people who descend from enslaved people and members of Terreiros de Umbanda and Candomblé in the city of Rio de Janeiro (southeastern region), which is now preserved at the Museu da Republica. For this purpose, we present a brief context on the historical development of Brazil, its contemporary museum universe, and Associação Brasileira de Antropologia's initiative to map ethnographic collections in Brazil. Both cases reveal experiences of decolonizing ethnographic collections with the direct involvement of the associated communities. These cases demonstrate how it is possible to deconstruct collections This article was previously presented during the Annual Meeting of the International Committee for Museums of Ethnography (ICME), an international committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-UNESCO) on November 22nd-23rd, 2022.
Latin American Antiquity, 2020
In this article, I take a close look at the objects collected over the last 200 years from the indigenous people of the Upper Rio Negro, northwest of the Brazilian Amazon, that were part of the ethnographic collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. Examination of these objects allows us to explore the main characteristics of the ethnographic archive of the museum, as the Upper Rio Negro collections were connected to different topics associated with indigenous societies and histories in Brazil, including enslavement, forced displacement, religious conversion, and indigenous territorial, artifactual, and cultural knowledge. This article also highlights the professional commitment of Brazilian anthropology to amplifying indigenous voices over the course of the history of the discipline, and by doing so, it pays homage to the women and men whose work built the National Museum collections. Este trabajo discute las principales características de las colecciones etnográficas del Museo Nacional de Río de Janeiro a través de los objetos recuperados durante los últimos 200 años entre los indígenas del Alto Río Negro (URN), quienes habitan en el noroeste de la Amazonia brasileña. Como un ejemplo que permite abordar las principales características del acervo etnográfico del Museo, estas colecciones están vinculadas a diferentes temas que abordan las historias y las sociedades indígenas de Brasil tales como la esclavitud, el desplazamiento forzado, la conversión religiosa y el conocimiento ecológico nativo. Durante la presentación de estos temas, el texto destaca el compromiso profesional de la Antropología Brasileña con la diseminación de las voces indígenas a lo largo de su historia. Al hacerlo, rindo homenaje a las mujeres y hombres cuyo trabajo ha constituido el Museo Nacional.
MUSEU AFRO BRASIL: DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES OF THE COLLECTION DOCUMENTATION
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