Straws and Feathers. Searching for a method to define the authenticity of indigenous cultural objects in Ethnographic Museums

Recent decades have seen the development of a post-colonial museum praxis in which research and authority is shared between indigenous people and museums. With these new developments suggestions of collection management en restoration possibilities have made questions of authenticity within these ethnographic objects necessary. Authenticity is a concept which cannot be limited to several criteria, since questions concerning authenticity of objects van only be answered within their own cultural context. Developed definitions of authenticity are culture specific, and the application of western notions of authenticity to ethnographic objects poses difficulties. Since there is not one definition of authenticity which can be applied to ethnographic objects, research must be performed on an object per object basis, which makes this kind of research a costly one. This is emphasised by several museum professionals who have practical experience with these questions from a museum context....Show moreRecent decades have seen the development of a post-colonial museum praxis in which research and authority is shared between indigenous people and museums. With these new developments suggestions of collection management en restoration possibilities have made questions of authenticity within these ethnographic objects necessary. Authenticity is a concept which cannot be limited to several criteria, since questions concerning authenticity of objects van only be answered within their own cultural context. Developed definitions of authenticity are culture specific, and the application of western notions of authenticity to ethnographic objects poses difficulties. Since there is not one definition of authenticity which can be applied to ethnographic objects, research must be performed on an object per object basis, which makes this kind of research a costly one. This is emphasised by several museum professionals who have practical experience with these questions from a museum context. They emphasised the importance of cultural background and open communication with indigenous people in discovering the authenticity of collections and planning for future management. Questions of authenticity can only arise when there is the possibility that there is inauthenticity. Those inauthentic objects were at first thought to be hybrid objects; objects made within indigenous culture but using materials external to that society. The interviewed disagreed and stressed the importance of these objects in the understanding of contact between indigenous communities and cultural change within this modern world. Application of both the theories of authenticity and the opinions of the interviewed to two case-studies confirmed the difficulties of the concept of authenticity within ethnographic objects. From the case-studies it became clear that the objects could not be considered authentic on the criteria presented by Lowenthal in 1992. Although the concept of authenticity of context seemed to provide the best opportunities, it still did not consider the fact that in modern museum practice indigenous communities reengage with their ancestral objects in museum collections. This makes clear that for application to ethnographic objects new considerations of authenticity are necessary. As Gustaaf Verswijver stated during the interview, if indigenous people consider an object as authentic within their own cultural context, this view should not be contested within a museum context. The application of concepts and theories of authenticity to museum is a complex matter, but studies which are focussed on this topic will enrich not only knowledge about collections but also might be used to strengthen bonds between museums and source communities. Therefore it should be more common in museums to research all aspects of their collections authenticity.Show less

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Straws and Feathers. Searching for a method to define the authenticity of indigenous cultural objects in Ethnographic Museums