Museums and the Making of "Ourselves": The Role of Objects in National Identity

Abstract

IntroductionThe revolutionary movements which are often the basis for nation-state formation frequently assert the uniqueness of one or more ethnic groups within such states. In attempting to preserve their cultural heritage, culturally and historically significant collections and sites, that were formerly the property of elites, are transferred into public hands as a national legacy. That legacy is then made available in museums for the enrichment, education and collective identity of the citzenry. Two kinds of basic resources are customarily collected, conserved and displayed in museums: objects, meaning the things of culture, belonging to the material world, that have been made, altered or utilized by human beings; and specimens or phenomena of the natural world. Writ large, these resources include monuments, architecture and sites, as well as living collections from nature, like arboretums, zoos, geological phenomena, gardens and their social constructions. Sometimes change is less dramatic than revolution, but is still the result of contested access to means of publicly defining self and nation, cultural and national identity and ambitions.This book presents the histories and case studies of some of the ways in which national cultural heritage was and is still being created, transformed and shaped into collective views of the state, its regions, municipalities, constituent groups, values and ideas. Museums and the Making of Ourselves calls attention to museums as social institutions. It treats museums as a potent force in forging self consciousness, within specific historical contexts and as part of a political process of democratization. The spread of museums in the 19th century was apparently spurred by burgeoning science and capitalism in the West; and in the 20th century, by industrialization, change and the demise of colonialism.The book chronicles some of the ways in which collections have played important roles in creating national identity and in promoting national agendas. It also provides examples in which an object or objects, themselves, stand for the nation-state, and embody the idea of the state for a people -- for example, the Old Testament Bible for Israel (Broshi, Chapter 3), and Iroquois wampum for some North American Indians (Abrams, Chapter 5). Other collections and objects are being rediscovered and reinterpreted elsewhere (Kaeppler, Chapter 1).