Sacred objects and transformations of museum ethics: origins, problems, solutions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2019.2.10Keywords:
sacred objects; museum ethics; decolonization; indigenous religions; ontological turn; biographies of things; museum display; storage; repatriation; cultural heritageAbstract
The article deals with the problematic of sacred objects in museums. It analyzes the political and intellectual reasons for the transformation of museum ethics in Western countries, and provides examples of the difficulties in dealing with sacred objects.
The first section of the article summarizes the historical reasons for the marginal position museums had until recently allocated to religion as a living phenomenon. The second and third sections analyze the reasons for the growing presence of religion in Western museums in the last few decades: first, the rethinking of the relationship between indigenous peoples and their heritage within the framework of decolonization; and, second, the epistemological shifts in the social sciences that have shaped a new understanding of “museum pieces” as social agents. The new museum ethics is therefore based on both the principle of respect for the objects themselves and the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to a living relationship with their heritage, especially with "sensitive materials", such as religious objects and human remains. Nevertheless, implementing these principles often reveals contradictions between the universalist values of museum work, such as the conservation and the access to heritage, and the particularistic logic of religious and ethnic groups.
The fourth part of the article provides examples of some of the difficulties encountered by Western museums in exhibiting, storing and repatriating sacred objects, and describes how they have been dealt with.
Finally, the conclusion elaborates on the special position of regional museums in Russia’s autochthonous republics in rethinking the religion in museum space and in implementing new museum ethics in dealing with sacred objects.
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How to Cite
Pimenova K. V. Sacred objects and transformations of museum ethics: origins, problems, solutions. The New Research of Tuva. 2019, № 2. URL: https://nit.tuva.asia/nit/article/view/851 (access date ...). DOI: 10.25178/nit.2019.2.10
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Author Biography
Ksenia V. Pimenova, National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS); Free University of Brussels (ULB)
Candidate of History, PhD in Sociology, Postdoctoral researcher, National Fund for Scientific Research (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS); affiliated to Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains (LAMC) at Free University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium.
Postal address: Université libre de Bruxelles, LAMC — Secrétariat, CP 124, Av. F. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgique.
E-mail: ksenia.pimenova@ulb.ac.be
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