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ThingsofthePast?MuseumsandEthnographicObjects

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Journal des africanistes

Things of the Past ? Museums and Ethnographic ObjectsPieter ter Keurs

RésuméLa plupart des musées ethnographique européens ont été fondés dans un contexte colonial et les modes de collecte des objetsétaient liés de près à ce contexte. La situation a fondamentalement changé. Cet article entend montrer que nous sommes misau défi de trouver un intérêt nouveau à l'étude de la culture matérielle. Le monde moderne, où la distinction entre « nous » et «les autres » est loin de s'abolir, est à même de fournir le contexte de travaux à venir. Les musées ethnographiques ne sont plusseulement des institution du passé (colonial), ils sont aussi des institutions pour les temps futurs.

AbstractMost European ethnographie museums were founded in the colonial context and the ways objects were collected were closelyrelated to colonialism. The situation has changed fundamentally. This article challenges us to renew our approach to the studyof material culture. The modern world, where the distinction between "us" and the "other" has far from disappeared, offersmuseums a inspiring context for further work. Ethnographic museums are not only things of the (colonial) past; they are alsothings for the future.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

ter Keurs Pieter. Things of the Past ? Museums and Ethnographic Objects. In: Journal des africanistes, 1999, tome 69,

fascicule 1. Des objets et leurs musées. pp. 67-80.

doi : 10.3406/jafr.1999.1187

http://www.persee.fr/doc/jafr_0399-0346_1999_num_69_1_1187

Document généré le 01/10/2015

Pieter ter KEURS"

Things of the Past ?

Museums and Ethnographic Objects

Résumé La plupart des musées ethnographique européens ont été fondés dans un contexte

colonial et les modes de collecte des objets étaient liés de près à ce contexte. La situation a fondamentalement changé. Cet article entend montrer que nous sommes mis au défi de trouver un intérêt nouveau à l'étude de la culture matérielle. Le monde moderne, où la distinction entre « nous » et « les autres » est loin de s'abolir, est à même de fournir le contexte de travaux à venir. Les musées ethnographiques ne sont plus seulement des institution du passé (colonial), ils sont aussi des institutions pour les temps futurs. Mots-clefs Colonialisme, héritage culturel, musées ethnographiques, Indonésie, culture matérielle

Abstract Most European ethnographie museums were founded in the colonial context and the

ways objects were collected were closely related to colonialism. The situation has changed fundamentally. This article challenges us to renew our approach to the study of material culture. The modern world, where the distinction between "us" and the "other" has far from disappeared, offers museums a inspiring context for further work. Ethnographic museums are not only things of the (colonial) past; they are also things for the future. Keywords Colonialism, cultural heritage, ethnographic museums, Indonesia, material culture

Curator for Insular Southeast Asia, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology), Leiden, Netherlands.

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In recent times, the museological and anthropological literature has raised fundamental questions about the role of ethnographic museums in the modern world (Shelton 1997)1. Expressions such as «old-fashioned», « dusty » and « identity crisis » are regularly used in this context. One of the main reasons for the problematic position of ethnographic museums in the western world is the changed power relation between European countries and the former colonies. Other issues that challenge the traditional role of ethnographic museums are related to strong economic growth in some parts of the non-western world (e.g. Southeast Asia) and the intensive flow of commodities between cultures all over the world.

The distinction between western and non-western cultures no longer holds and traditional style areas appear to have been much more « polluted » with objects from elsewhere than European museum curators are willing to admit. However, these observations should not lead us to conclude that ethnographic museums are obsolete. Even when the traditional tasks of museums — collecting, conservating, research and presentation — remain the cornerstones for museum policies, there are many keys to modernising the role of museums in society, keys to new ways of working with counterparts in former colonies, and to taking an active role in the cultural field at a local, national and even international level.

This article will explore some of these new ways based on old assumptions. It will argue that the fundamental role of ethnographic museums has not changed, and that we can find challenging new roads within the framework of a tradition.

THE COLLECTIONS

Most European ethnographic museums were founded in the nineteenth century, at the time European colonialism reached its peak. Some museums, such as those of St. Petersburg, Copenhagen and Leiden, can be dated back to the first decade of the nineteenth century, but most other ethnographic museums were established in the second half of that century. I will not discuss in detail the cultural background of the founding of ethnographic museums, but the fact that European nationalism and imperialism (two closely related phenomena) also had their heyday in the second half of the previous century, is certainly no coincidence. In addition, it means that when looking at the collections in the main ethnographic museums in Europe, we are obliged to keep the socio-cultural background of colonial exploitation in mind. The new

1 I would like to thank Mrs. Enid Perlin for correcting my English.

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museums of Ethnology of the western world were, just like everything else in society, incorporated into the cultural context of nineteenth-century Europe.

Colonialism has to a large extent dominated the development of ethnographic museums and the growth of the collections in particular. In the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden, the Indonesian collection is by far the largest. After the first Dutch voyage to the former East Indies in 1595-1596, as part of an effort to compete with Portugal in their monopoly of the spice routes, the Dutch slowly succeeded in gaining control over the area by means of a series of economic, political and military activities. Contrary to popular belief, full political control over the Indonesian archipelago was only achieved at the beginning of the twentieth century, some three-hundred years after the first voyage. A monopoly on trade with the Moluccas, however, was reached as early as the seventeenth century. The increasing interest in political and military control dates from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Scientific interest in the East Indies was stimulated as a side-effect.

One can distinguish five ways of collecting in the colonial context :

Scientific expedition

The Dutch king William I stimulated scientific research in the Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the nineteenth century. As an admirer of art and science he sponsored the foundation of several museums, including the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, and sent several scientific expeditions to the colonies. The scientists who were sent on expeditions were for the most part natural scientists. Anthropology was not yet recognized as a separate academic discipline, and it was usually the physician of the group who also collected ethnographic objects. The physician was considered to be the anthropologist of the team because of his interest in physical anthropology. Cultural anthropology and its theories on how cultural phenomena could be explained did not exist as yet. These expeditions also had a political aim. The authorities were very interested in discovering and mapping new areas, claiming authority over the area (especially in the latter nineteenth century), and finding new possibilities for economic exploitation. In this way, politics and science were closely related.

A late example of this type of collecting activity is the exploration of Borneo by A.W. Nieuwenhuis. At the turn of the century he undertook three expeditions into the interior of Borneo with the aim, apart from scientific reasons, of bringing « peace and stability » to Central Borneo. In the context of the third expedition it is also mentioned that the English influence on

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Borneo needed to be controlled. Nieuwenhuis returned to the Netherlands in 1904 to become Professor of Ethnology at Leiden University. His collections, including a large number of photographs by J. Demmeni, are now a unique source for our study of Borneo2.

Individual collecting activities

Among individual collectors of Indonesian artefacts one can find civil servants, missionaries, and medical doctors. Naturally, this individualistic way of collecting also took place in the context of colonialism. All of the collectors were somehow related to the colonial authorities, although some of them succeeded in developing a special relationship with the local population due to the fact that they remained for lengthy periods in one specific area. The civil servant O. L. Helfrich, who worked for many years in different parts of Sumatra, is one such significant individual collector. His collections and the accompanying documentation are still a valuable support for Sumatra experts.

The government also employed civil servants, especially for scientific work. A good example is the German baron Von Rosenberg (1817-1888), who worked in the Indonesian archipelago for thirty years. At first he worked in Sumatra, also visiting the islands west of Sumatra ; later, from 1859 onwards, he turned his attention to the Moluccas in the eastern part of the colony. In 1862 he was officially appointed as scientific employee, with the special task of travelling and documenting in the interest of science3 !

Colonial exhibitions

A major source for museums were colonial exhibitions. In the second half of the nineteenth century, European nationalism developed into a strong driving force for expansion outside Europe. By the end of the century a large part of the non-western world had been divided among the nation states of Europe. Along with this process the economic possibilities (the colonies as sources of raw materials and as new markets) were explored and publicized in the western world. World Exhibitions and Colonial Exhibitions were in fact showcases for the economic opportunities the colonies offered.

2 Nieuwenhuis wrote several books about his travels. His Quer durch Borneo (1904) is the most accessible for non-Dutch speakers. A good summary of Nieuwenhuis' life and work can be found in Sellato (1993). 3 For an overall view on his life and work, consult Von Rosenberg (1878).

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Many objects were collected (and even made) for these major exhibitions. Dutch authorities asked civil servants and missionaries to collect material for the Dutch parts of the exhibitions, and in many cases objects were specially made for the occasion (e.g. models of houses and boats, puppets dressed in local costume). A good example is the Colonial Exhibition in Amsterdam in 1883. As a result of this exhibition the museum's collection was expanded with four thousand well-documented objects. These kind of acquisitions, especially, made the Indonesian collection by far the largest in the museum.

Military expeditions

The military activities in the Dutch colonies, undertaken to expand and strengthen Dutch political power over the unwilling areas, also resulted in shipments of collections to the museum in Leiden. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, several military expeditions were undertaken in the Dutch East Indies. The most important ones were to Aceh (a long-lasting war), Bali (1906-1908) and Lombok (1894). In the case of Aceh, mainly weapons were collected, but on Bali and Lombok the collections included other objects as well, such as jewelry and a famous manuscript on the Hindu-Buddhist history of Java and Bali (the Nagara- kertagama). Nowadays, these colonial wars are considered to be black pages in our history, but at that time people generally had a different view of these matters. Although there were protests, there was certainly no overall disapproval.

It might be interesting, however, to study this aspect of the colonial situation in more detail. Many myths have arisen in discussions on the morality of ethnographic museum collections, but in the case of the Leiden museum it appears that some « sensitive » objects were in fact gifts from the Indonesian nobility to the Dutch rulers, and not war booty. A second observation is that the number of objects collected during colonial wars has often been exaggerated. For a long time, popular belief had it that thirty percent of the Indonesian collection in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde was collected in the course of colonial wars. In fact, when one looks at the three main colonial wars in Indonesia (Aceh, Bali, and Lombok), less than three percent of the collection is involved4.

4 Of course, this does not mean that I approve of this way of collecting.

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Gifts and small-scale purchases from (non-professional) individuals

Finally, there have always been gifts and small-scale purchases from individuals, people who have worked in the colonies themselves, people who inherited objects from parents who once lived in Indonesia, and people who obtained objects through other means such as auctions, antique markets and so on.

Similar ways of collecting ethnographic objects can be mentioned in connection with all the other old ethnographic museums, for the museums themselves were all no doubt closely related to colonialism. This historical background cannot and should not be denied. It makes us conscious of the faults of history, but can at the same time offer new opportunities for the future. Let us discuss this subject in more detail.

A NEW SITUATION

In 1977 and 1978 the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde returned the thirteenth-century statue of the Buddhist Goddess Prajnaparamita and a large part of the Lombok treasure to Indonesia, to be permanently displayed in the National Museum in Jakarta. Although this is not the first example of restitution — in the 1930s objects from the Sultanate of Bone had already been returned — it marked a major change in the relationship between the Netherlands and Indonesia. In this political process of change the position of the museum would never be the same again. The colonial past is a fact of life ; the present represents a fundamentally different situation. What has changed ?

Most former colonies have become independent. Although many new states are still considered to be developing countries, with less economic strength than Western countries, power relations have changed considerably. In most countries, European researchers need research permits from central and local authorities ; collecting activities are only allowed under strict rules, sanctioned by the government and controlled by special services. This situation undoubtedly means that western researchers have become more dependent on their local counterparts, while at the same time moral reasons for a more equal cooperation between former colonies and former « mother countries » have also gained importance.

Apart from this practical, political change, the increasing possibilities for travel has also had an effect on museum policies. It is not only tourists from the West visiting the non-western world who influence museums. Also, more and more people from former colonies are able to visit museums in European

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countries and comment on the displays and the documentation offered by these museums. The display of human remains in museum showcases, the display of sacred ancestor statues, or again, the image given of a particular culture, have given rise to regular debates in museums. A more critical attitude towards museum productions has become necessary5.

At the same time, the aloofness of the scientific museum work sometimes presented in exhibitions has evoked criticism that has strongly affected the (at times isolated) position of the « old-fashioned » museum curator. Research and presentation activities can no longer be judged according to western scientific criteria alone. From now on, the non-western, participants' point of view has forced museum workers to consider other criteria as well.

In this new situation, the role of local counterparts in research and collecting activities has become more important. As already mentioned, for practical reasons there is a need for cooperation with local counterparts, but another effect is that these counterparts themselves are increasingly involved in museum products such as catalogues and exhibitions. The Indonesian Department of the Rijkmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden has recently cooperated successfully with several Indonesian museums in exhibition and documentation projects. Indonesian colleagues have visited the store-rooms and studied the old collections. Loans have been arranged and joint research has been carried out. In fact, this type of cooperation has proved to be interesting and fruitful for both parties.

However, one major change has not been discussed so far ; this change, which may prove fundamental, makes many museum people feel insecure. In the post-colonial world the global spread of material culture has been enormous. Western goods are being used in the most isolated areas of the world and non-western goods can be found in the western world as part of interior decoration, as birthday presents in markets and special gift shops, as clothes and as art. The mix of objects, usually resulting in new styles and new meanings, is endless and very creative. The result is that the boundaries between the « traditional » style areas, as defined by previous generations of curators, are fading. An Asmat woodcarving might come from the Asmat area (New Guinea) itself, but it might just as well be made in the outkirts of Jakarta, to be sold on the antique market on Jalan Surabaya. The face designs

5 Just before the opening of the Maluku Tenggara exhibition in 1995 in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, a representative of the Moluccan community in the Netherlands explained to an ancestor statue the reasons for the exhibition and apologized that he (the statue) would be on display for several months.

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of the Tami-Siassi wooden masks can be clearly identified as family emblems within a complex social structure. Similar designs, however, were used by the pop group « Kiss » in the 1970s, to decorate their faces. The plastic bucket, filled with water, that we use to clean the corridor of our house can be the same plastic bucket used by a Balinese woman for cleaning her veranda ; and the Bic pen we use to write with, can be used by a Papuan as a nose ornament.

Material culture is influencing people everywhere and is changing, together with the process of developing new meanings. New forms come into existence, forms that cannot be studied as static styles. As changes are constantly being made, styles can no longer be related to particular localities. The consequences for museum work are enormous. The museum is designed to preserve and to document the material culture of people, but by the time our long and thorough studies have documented a particular material phenomenon, it has already disappeared. Cultural studies very quickly become historical ones. Style areas no longer exist, although typical local reactions to the globalization process are certainly worth documenting. The threat posed by such rapid changes is worrying for some curators. An additional reason for worry is the conviction, sometimes explicitly stated, that most of the new « things » are badly made, of inferior quality, and certainly cannot be considered comparable to the « good, expressive art » that was made in the past.

In my view, the point made here is a fundamental one. It is not just changes in the museum world that may be considered to be threatening for museum people ; mainly, it is changes in the world and the changing use of material culture itself, the traditional subject of museums.

BACK TO BASICS

How do we deal with changes in the use of material culture in the world's cultures ? One reaction could be to throw away the past and to start anew with new collecting policies and with new presentation techniques not based on the already existing collections. In this view, the starting point would be the critical question : who needs collections ? There are so many other techniques for presenting cultural phenomena. In this perspective we would throw away our past and try to reformulate the basic museum tasks for the future.

Although this might seem to be a challenging road to follow, the disadvantages should also be clear. Throwing away the historical roots of our museums means throwing away a part of our cultural and historical background, for ethnographic museums are also part of Western cultural

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history. Apart from the negation of our own history, one would also be throwing away an important resource for research on non-western and western cultures. Material culture — objects — constitutes a unique resource for research. Material objects are unique because of their very materiality : matter is static, can be touched, and is undeniable as an empirical reality. Also, objects can be used for research again and again. Material culture is a subject for research that can be restudied as much as we like ; it is therefore possible to study the same objects at different périodes, with different questions.

The main reason, however, for advocating the centrality of objects in museum tasks for the future is the important role objects play in human life. This sounds self-evident, but the consequences of such an observation are not always recognized. Material objects are essential to culture. Without objects human beings cannot live, and objects order the environment of human beings in practical, functional, and symbolic ways. Walls block our views and thereby determine our perception of the world during a specific time and from a specific point of view ; furniture arranges the space in our offices and in our houses, and cars prevent us from crossing the street. Material culture is undeniable and definitely part of our reality. There is, however, more to be said. Material culture is also used to stress or to strengthen a social status or a political position. The clothes of a university professor are quite different from those of a road worker, and a rich industrialist is again recognizably different from a university professor. Material culture is used to represent status and prestige.

Anthropological literature has given us many examples of the use of objects in a symbolic sense and there is no need to summarize the literature here. It should be remarked, however, that an overly narrow-minded view of this dimension of objects may draw attention away from the grass-roots functions of objects. A house roof is still meant to keep the rain out, whatever symbolic meaning the anthropologist might attach to it.

Since the 1980s, the central importance of objects in human lives has led to renewed attention to material culture in the social sciences. Because of important studies by Bourdieu (1979), Appadurai (1986), and Miller (1987), among others, material culture has been placed at the centre of many recent research activities. Scholars realized that material culture is of crucial importance and as a result the boundaries between various disciplines have begun to fade. Sociologists, anthropologists and archaeologists dealing with material culture feel increasingly inter-related. As a focus-point within various theoretical frameworks, material culture brings together people from different academic backgrounds.

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The importance of material culture and the recent scientific interest in material culture are good reasons for maintaining the collections themselves as the core elements of museum work. The collections are not important simply because we already have them, only for historical reasons, but primarily because objects are key elements in every culture. A serious scientific interest in objects is therefore completely legitimate, for it improves our understanding of culture. In addition, museums are unique because they own the material entities that we regard as sources of information for a better understanding. Universities and research institutes do not have this advantage.

OLD COLLECTIONS, NEW TASKS ?

The remarks made above direct us to the premiss that the collections should be, as before, the starting point for museum policies and activities. The old collections in ethnographic museums provide us with a unique historical framework for our (European) relationship with the rest of the world, but they also provide us with clues to understanding other, foreign cultures. The collections, however, should not be merely historical. When there is no growth in the collections, incorporating new objects from the present-day situation, the ethnographic museum becomes an historical museum, increasingly isolated from modern developments. Alternaltively, it develops into an art museum, where only the esthetic value of the objects prevails. The socio-cultural aspect of the museum's task (together with a keen interest in socio-cultural change) is essential, for museums are not only supposed to document « dead » cultures, but recent developments as well. If this aspect does not receive enough attention among the museum's staff, the institute itself will gradually become obsolete. Therefore, a major task of ethnographic museums in modern times is documenting and explaining recent changes in people's material environment. In practical terms this means collecting objects that are still used, not merely historical artefacts, and doing research on the cultural context of the objects used. The modern consumption society, with the central role it gives to material objects, offers a wide range of possible museum projects.

As mentioned above, the traditional distinction between western and non-western cultures is gradually disappearing. Some say that the existence of ethnographic museums is threatened by this development. With this point of view one forgets, however, that the distinction between « us » and the « other » is not disappearing. Apparently, human beings need to draw distinctions between their own reliable, close-by world and the other, sometimes dangerous and incomprehensible, world. In the past the other

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world was usually far away, even physically. Nowadays the other world can be our neighbours' house. It is true that geographical distances have diminished because of the increased facilities of travel. Cultural differences, however, have not diminished at all.

Documenting, comparing and explaining cultural differences on the basis of object collecting and research on material culture is one of the major tasks of ethnographic museums, both now and in the future. Recent cultural developments, in the western and non-western world, give no indication that this task will become less important. On the contrary, it may be even more important in the future than it has been in the past.

Having said how important museums can be for the study of future sociocultural developments, and how crucial material culture — the collection — is in this respect, we can now mention some specific points which are of interest in developing future museum tasks.

Current sociocultural developments, as related to material culture.

For ethnographic museums, collections without knowledge are useless. Research on the collections, in the broad sense of the term, is therefore essential for the use of the collections. This research should not be limited to the storerooms of the museums, for that would result in a limited view on the use of objects in human lives. Our studies should include fieldwork as well in order to obtain a more lively and more realistic view of the place of material culture within culture. Researchers in museums should be the people who make dead objects come to life, rather than the people who (to mention an old idea about curators) are just guarding their own department, hostile to the outside world, operating from an isolated position. Naturally this demands certain skills from researchers and curators.

It goes without saying that professional care of collections is a condition for research on the said collections. Without collections we cannot study material culture properly. Although the present-day use of objects can be and should be studied in situ, the historical dimension in our research can only be maintained by means of historical collections.

Documenting cultural heritage.

In our search for knowledge regarding cultural change, museums are in a good position for documenting cultural heritage and for sharing that knowledge with the cultures concerned. Every country in the world has the urge to stress or to create a history within which to strengthen and justify its present situation (Hobsbawn 1983). Specific group identities are used, and

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also invented, to justify the development of national states. In this respect cultural heritage is often used for political reasons. At the same time, people feel a certain pride in their own cultural background and, of course, they have the right to feel proud of it. In Indonesia, the Buddhist temple Borobudur and the Hindu temple complex Prambanan, near Yogyakarta in Central Java, both attract large numbers of Indonesian tourists. Although most of the Indonesian tourists are Muslims, these temple remains play an important role in the feeling of being Indonesian. The later East Javanese empires of Singasari and Majapahit were large precolonial kingdoms often used in creating an Indonesian identity, e.g. by means of story telling on the radio.

Museums also play a role in this cultural-political process of preserving the past. Old material remains need to be interpreted and conserved. Teams of curators and conservators should be active in this field, in the future even more than nowadays6.

Creating respect for other (sub)cultures.

As a third key task for an ethnographic museum I would like to mention the need for understanding other (sub)cultures. By understanding one can begin to respect, to realize that « other » ways of living are just as good — or just as bad — as « ours ». Again, we should not just concentrate on cultures that are geographically far-away. Subcultures within our own culture are equally important.

In future museum presentations, this ideological aim should be kept in mind constantly. The « Pride and Prejudice » of our own limited ways of seeing should always be critically examined. This fundamental value, a moral rather than a scientific one, is worth spending a lot of tax money on.

THINGS FOR THE FUTURE

In presenting material culture — the collection — as the core of a museum's activities, certain consequences will have to be accepted. Ethnographic museums are dealing with the material culture of all the world's cultures, including our own. There is no scientific justification for a distinction between western and non- western cultures. Material culture consists of all the material objects that are made and/or used by human beings, and the spread of material culture over the world, especially in a time of intensive

6 At the moment the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden is engaged in Cultural Heritage Projects in Mali and Sri Lanka.

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globalization, shows how absurd sharp distinctions between cultures are. In addition, cultures should be presented as flexible societies, change having become a major element in most of the world's cultures. Even in the past, change — mostly due to trade activities — has been a crucial element in cultural development. This flexibility has to be taken into account in museum research and exhibitions. The image of the « primitive, isolated » culture, still deeply rooted in European mentality, is a western invention, a created image of the « other », outside, dangerous world. It is the task of ethnographic museums to fight this image.

Are ethnographic museums and their collections « Things of the Past » ? To a certain extent they definitely are. Ethnographic museums were founded during a colonial era and the collections were assembled in a colonial context. By storing and conserving these collections we clearly try to preserve the past, sometimes even against our better judgement. If this were to be the ultimate aim of museums, the historic element would be so dominant that ethnographic museums would begin to call themselves historical museums. They would then study history, since anthropology would be reserved for universities and other research institutes. This, however, is just part of the story.

An active role for ethnographic museums in the present-day world of modernity7 offers us quite a different view. As mentioned above, future tasks for ethnographic museums can be clearly described. These tasks follow from past collecting activities and the knowledge that has been built up from existing collections. They are a logical result of our museum heritage, and they can now be pursued in a way that is advantageous for our counterparts in the former colonies. The new tasks of European ethnographic museums are new in the sense that they deal with recent worldwide cultural developments in a flexible way ; they are old in the sense that the preservation of cultural heritage has always been one of the museum's basic ambitions.

The enormous and rapid changes taking place in the modern world in fact offer ethnographic museums unique opportunities to position themselves in the centre of these transformations. Many old ethnographic museums in Europe are going through a process of change, to be better prepared for the future. The new type of museum that should emerge from these changes is, hopefully, not only a static documentation centre focussing on historic developments. The new type of museum has to play an active role in the

7 The large quantity of literature and current discussions about modernity, post-colonialism, and orientalism, clearly have their effects on museums. For this article I choose not to treat the subject from a more theoretical point of view. It would have been too large an undertaking for one article.

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modem world, all the while keeping in mind our historic roots. Museums are at once « things of the past » and « things for the future ».

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APPADURAI, A. (ed.) (1986), The Social Life of Things. Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1979), La distinction, Paris, Éditions de Minuit (English translation 1986. Distinction. A social critique of the judgement of taste, London & New York, Routledge & Kegan Paul).

Hobsbawm, E. and T. Ranger (eds.) (1983), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Miller, D. (1987), Material Culture and Mass Consumption, Oxford, Basil Blackwell.

NffiUWENHUlS, A. W. (1904), Quer durch Borneo, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 2 vol. Rosenberg, C. B. H. Baron von. (1878), Der Malayische Archipel. Land und

Leute, Leipzig, Verlag von Gustav Weigel. Sellato, B. (1993), « A. W. Nœuwenhuis across Borneo (1894-1994)»,

Borneo Research Bulletin 25: 14-31. Shelton. A. A. (1997), « The Future of Museum Ethnography », Journal of

Museum Ethnography 9 : 33-48.

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