‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums

Autores
Burón, Manuel; Podgorny, Irina; Richard, Nathalie
Año de publicación
2024
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
we want to emphasise in this article that the perishable nature of collections remains a characteristic of them even today. To think about the museum in terms of its perishable nature, the article presents two Latin American examples. Far from presenting the history and complexity of Latin American museums, this article is a plea for a concept of the museum that acknowledges the idea of impermanence and perishability. For that purpose, we analyse historical circumstances in which the actors asked themselves why this or that museum had been created. We refer to provincial natural history museums in nineteenth-century Argentina and community collections in contemporary Mexico: two different contexts that reflect the importance of the fields of natural history and of anthropology in those countries. These two sections exemplify two historical trends. In the first, museums are understood as places to produce knowledge, linked to the materials needed for a scientific discipline and organised around the objects stored, but not always displayed, in its buildings. The collections analysed in this section as well as in the second, reveal that collecting occurred beyond the metropolis and involved professionals and vocational scientists self-organised around common interests and working in network. The second refers to the late twentieth-century trope on the importance of community museums, namely the need to keep things where they belong. What happens when this is imposed over a community that does not care about museums? Why a museum at all?International trends and temporalities characterise the history of worldwide museums, including those established in the Americas, where historiography has showed the existence of different museum ‘waves’, such as those museums created in the 1820s just after independence: Buenos Aires (1812–1823), Rio de Janeiro (1818), Santiago de Chile (1822), Bogotá en Colombia (1823), Ciudad de México (1825), Lima (1826) and Montevideo (1837).3 In those years, museums emerged everywhere with a port that connected cities to the world, bringing and exporting objects, news and novelties. From Whitby in the UK to Charleston in North Carolina, the 1820s witnessed the establishment of untold numbers of museums, showing that what happened in Ibero-America was part of an international trend that perceived museums as something needed for being fashionable. Miruna Achim has characterised the period that started in the 1820s in the Americas as the ‘trial years’, meaning that museums—sometimes linked to a learned society that promoted the gathering and exchange of data and objects—had fragile existences, menaced by political turmoil and permanent financial crises.4 Later some of those museums were re-founded, reoriented and renamed. Institutional historiographies have treated them as if they had remained the same all through their history, a problem anchored in the idea of permanence that veils the transformations and losses that marked their survival.
Fil: Burón, Manuel. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España
Fil: Podgorny, Irina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Archivo Histórico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina
Fil: Richard, Nathalie. Le Mans Université.; Francia
Materia
Museums
Collections
Mexico
Argentina
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/237945

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spelling ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museumsBurón, ManuelPodgorny, IrinaRichard, NathalieMuseumsCollectionsMexicoArgentinahttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6we want to emphasise in this article that the perishable nature of collections remains a characteristic of them even today. To think about the museum in terms of its perishable nature, the article presents two Latin American examples. Far from presenting the history and complexity of Latin American museums, this article is a plea for a concept of the museum that acknowledges the idea of impermanence and perishability. For that purpose, we analyse historical circumstances in which the actors asked themselves why this or that museum had been created. We refer to provincial natural history museums in nineteenth-century Argentina and community collections in contemporary Mexico: two different contexts that reflect the importance of the fields of natural history and of anthropology in those countries. These two sections exemplify two historical trends. In the first, museums are understood as places to produce knowledge, linked to the materials needed for a scientific discipline and organised around the objects stored, but not always displayed, in its buildings. The collections analysed in this section as well as in the second, reveal that collecting occurred beyond the metropolis and involved professionals and vocational scientists self-organised around common interests and working in network. The second refers to the late twentieth-century trope on the importance of community museums, namely the need to keep things where they belong. What happens when this is imposed over a community that does not care about museums? Why a museum at all?International trends and temporalities characterise the history of worldwide museums, including those established in the Americas, where historiography has showed the existence of different museum ‘waves’, such as those museums created in the 1820s just after independence: Buenos Aires (1812–1823), Rio de Janeiro (1818), Santiago de Chile (1822), Bogotá en Colombia (1823), Ciudad de México (1825), Lima (1826) and Montevideo (1837).3 In those years, museums emerged everywhere with a port that connected cities to the world, bringing and exporting objects, news and novelties. From Whitby in the UK to Charleston in North Carolina, the 1820s witnessed the establishment of untold numbers of museums, showing that what happened in Ibero-America was part of an international trend that perceived museums as something needed for being fashionable. Miruna Achim has characterised the period that started in the 1820s in the Americas as the ‘trial years’, meaning that museums—sometimes linked to a learned society that promoted the gathering and exchange of data and objects—had fragile existences, menaced by political turmoil and permanent financial crises.4 Later some of those museums were re-founded, reoriented and renamed. Institutional historiographies have treated them as if they had remained the same all through their history, a problem anchored in the idea of permanence that veils the transformations and losses that marked their survival.Fil: Burón, Manuel. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Podgorny, Irina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Archivo Histórico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Richard, Nathalie. Le Mans Université.; FranciaAustralian National University2024-05info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/237945Burón, Manuel; Podgorny, Irina; Richard, Nathalie; ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums; Australian National University; HUmanities Research Journal; 20; 1; 5-2024; 133-1501834-8491CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n10484/html/09_Buron_et_al.xhtml?referer=&page=12#info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-29T10:00:27Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/237945instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-29 10:00:27.521CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
title ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
spellingShingle ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
Burón, Manuel
Museums
Collections
Mexico
Argentina
title_short ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
title_full ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
title_fullStr ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
title_full_unstemmed ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
title_sort ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Burón, Manuel
Podgorny, Irina
Richard, Nathalie
author Burón, Manuel
author_facet Burón, Manuel
Podgorny, Irina
Richard, Nathalie
author_role author
author2 Podgorny, Irina
Richard, Nathalie
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Museums
Collections
Mexico
Argentina
topic Museums
Collections
Mexico
Argentina
purl_subject.fl_str_mv https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv we want to emphasise in this article that the perishable nature of collections remains a characteristic of them even today. To think about the museum in terms of its perishable nature, the article presents two Latin American examples. Far from presenting the history and complexity of Latin American museums, this article is a plea for a concept of the museum that acknowledges the idea of impermanence and perishability. For that purpose, we analyse historical circumstances in which the actors asked themselves why this or that museum had been created. We refer to provincial natural history museums in nineteenth-century Argentina and community collections in contemporary Mexico: two different contexts that reflect the importance of the fields of natural history and of anthropology in those countries. These two sections exemplify two historical trends. In the first, museums are understood as places to produce knowledge, linked to the materials needed for a scientific discipline and organised around the objects stored, but not always displayed, in its buildings. The collections analysed in this section as well as in the second, reveal that collecting occurred beyond the metropolis and involved professionals and vocational scientists self-organised around common interests and working in network. The second refers to the late twentieth-century trope on the importance of community museums, namely the need to keep things where they belong. What happens when this is imposed over a community that does not care about museums? Why a museum at all?International trends and temporalities characterise the history of worldwide museums, including those established in the Americas, where historiography has showed the existence of different museum ‘waves’, such as those museums created in the 1820s just after independence: Buenos Aires (1812–1823), Rio de Janeiro (1818), Santiago de Chile (1822), Bogotá en Colombia (1823), Ciudad de México (1825), Lima (1826) and Montevideo (1837).3 In those years, museums emerged everywhere with a port that connected cities to the world, bringing and exporting objects, news and novelties. From Whitby in the UK to Charleston in North Carolina, the 1820s witnessed the establishment of untold numbers of museums, showing that what happened in Ibero-America was part of an international trend that perceived museums as something needed for being fashionable. Miruna Achim has characterised the period that started in the 1820s in the Americas as the ‘trial years’, meaning that museums—sometimes linked to a learned society that promoted the gathering and exchange of data and objects—had fragile existences, menaced by political turmoil and permanent financial crises.4 Later some of those museums were re-founded, reoriented and renamed. Institutional historiographies have treated them as if they had remained the same all through their history, a problem anchored in the idea of permanence that veils the transformations and losses that marked their survival.
Fil: Burón, Manuel. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España
Fil: Podgorny, Irina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Archivo Histórico; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina
Fil: Richard, Nathalie. Le Mans Université.; Francia
description we want to emphasise in this article that the perishable nature of collections remains a characteristic of them even today. To think about the museum in terms of its perishable nature, the article presents two Latin American examples. Far from presenting the history and complexity of Latin American museums, this article is a plea for a concept of the museum that acknowledges the idea of impermanence and perishability. For that purpose, we analyse historical circumstances in which the actors asked themselves why this or that museum had been created. We refer to provincial natural history museums in nineteenth-century Argentina and community collections in contemporary Mexico: two different contexts that reflect the importance of the fields of natural history and of anthropology in those countries. These two sections exemplify two historical trends. In the first, museums are understood as places to produce knowledge, linked to the materials needed for a scientific discipline and organised around the objects stored, but not always displayed, in its buildings. The collections analysed in this section as well as in the second, reveal that collecting occurred beyond the metropolis and involved professionals and vocational scientists self-organised around common interests and working in network. The second refers to the late twentieth-century trope on the importance of community museums, namely the need to keep things where they belong. What happens when this is imposed over a community that does not care about museums? Why a museum at all?International trends and temporalities characterise the history of worldwide museums, including those established in the Americas, where historiography has showed the existence of different museum ‘waves’, such as those museums created in the 1820s just after independence: Buenos Aires (1812–1823), Rio de Janeiro (1818), Santiago de Chile (1822), Bogotá en Colombia (1823), Ciudad de México (1825), Lima (1826) and Montevideo (1837).3 In those years, museums emerged everywhere with a port that connected cities to the world, bringing and exporting objects, news and novelties. From Whitby in the UK to Charleston in North Carolina, the 1820s witnessed the establishment of untold numbers of museums, showing that what happened in Ibero-America was part of an international trend that perceived museums as something needed for being fashionable. Miruna Achim has characterised the period that started in the 1820s in the Americas as the ‘trial years’, meaning that museums—sometimes linked to a learned society that promoted the gathering and exchange of data and objects—had fragile existences, menaced by political turmoil and permanent financial crises.4 Later some of those museums were re-founded, reoriented and renamed. Institutional historiographies have treated them as if they had remained the same all through their history, a problem anchored in the idea of permanence that veils the transformations and losses that marked their survival.
publishDate 2024
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2024-05
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11336/237945
Burón, Manuel; Podgorny, Irina; Richard, Nathalie; ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums; Australian National University; HUmanities Research Journal; 20; 1; 5-2024; 133-150
1834-8491
CONICET Digital
CONICET
url http://hdl.handle.net/11336/237945
identifier_str_mv Burón, Manuel; Podgorny, Irina; Richard, Nathalie; ‘¿Para qué un museo?’: A reflection from Latin America upon the fragility and necessity of museums; Australian National University; HUmanities Research Journal; 20; 1; 5-2024; 133-150
1834-8491
CONICET Digital
CONICET
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n10484/html/09_Buron_et_al.xhtml?referer=&page=12#
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Australian National University
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Australian National University
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
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reponame_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
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