Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici

This paper sets the 1905-06 Eritrean Mission in the context of the newly born Italian anthropology and of the first Italian colonialism, putting into their historical setting the methodology that was used for collecting, “patrimonializing” and exhibiting the collected “documents”. In addition to thi...

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Main Author: Elena Pacini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ethnorêma Association 2009-12-01
Series:Ethnorêma
Online Access:http://www.ethnorema.it/pdf/numero%205/05%20Pacini.pdf
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author Elena Pacini
author_facet Elena Pacini
author_sort Elena Pacini
collection DOAJ
description This paper sets the 1905-06 Eritrean Mission in the context of the newly born Italian anthropology and of the first Italian colonialism, putting into their historical setting the methodology that was used for collecting, “patrimonializing” and exhibiting the collected “documents”. In addition to this, it studies the links between colonial policies and scientific theories. The connection between these two aspects gave rise to rigid and crystallized representations of alterity, that were strongly marked by evolutionist and sometimes even racist biases towards the studied Saho population. This paper describes how the members of the mission collected the ethnographic objects, which were their scientific goals and how they became documents of cultural heritage, that are still displayed in the Museum of Natural History of Florence (Section of Anthropology and Ethnology, MNAE). At the end the author briefly invites to renew the rooms of the MNAE, by adopting a less ethnocentric and more dialogical and negotiated way of exhibiting the different items, so as to overcome the imperialist ideological heritage without altogether destroying the former way of displaying them.
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spelling doaj.art-e472f7e1bdcd46cfb89a9200e69b2fd52022-12-21T22:31:24ZengEthnorêma AssociationEthnorêma1826-88032009-12-015/20092949Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnograficiElena Pacini0Elena PaciniThis paper sets the 1905-06 Eritrean Mission in the context of the newly born Italian anthropology and of the first Italian colonialism, putting into their historical setting the methodology that was used for collecting, “patrimonializing” and exhibiting the collected “documents”. In addition to this, it studies the links between colonial policies and scientific theories. The connection between these two aspects gave rise to rigid and crystallized representations of alterity, that were strongly marked by evolutionist and sometimes even racist biases towards the studied Saho population. This paper describes how the members of the mission collected the ethnographic objects, which were their scientific goals and how they became documents of cultural heritage, that are still displayed in the Museum of Natural History of Florence (Section of Anthropology and Ethnology, MNAE). At the end the author briefly invites to renew the rooms of the MNAE, by adopting a less ethnocentric and more dialogical and negotiated way of exhibiting the different items, so as to overcome the imperialist ideological heritage without altogether destroying the former way of displaying them.http://www.ethnorema.it/pdf/numero%205/05%20Pacini.pdf
spellingShingle Elena Pacini
Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
Ethnorêma
title Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
title_full Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
title_fullStr Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
title_full_unstemmed Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
title_short Dal territorio eritreo al Museo. Gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
title_sort dal territorio eritreo al museo gli scopi e le tecniche di collezione degli oggetti etnografici
url http://www.ethnorema.it/pdf/numero%205/05%20Pacini.pdf
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