DEN OPLØSTE SAMLING OG DEN MAGISKE MATERIE

Resumé

collecting objects related to magic rituals in

Brazil for the Department of Ethnography of

the Danish National Museum, the article deals

with the different conditions in which objects

are found, and how they are embedded in

their social context as well as in the context

of the museum collection. The metaphors of

wet and dry are used to characterize the –

paradoxical – social killing – or “drying” –of the objects, when they enter the museum

and are made permanent, and in principle,

eternal through conservation. In Denmark,

moreover, the de-accession of museum

objects is virtually non existent, aside

from the cases in which cultural property

is repatriated. “Wet” objects are objects in

social circulation. Likewise objects can be

said to be wet when they are used in magic

rituals, and where it is their role and fate to

be destroyed and dissolved as, for instance,

in order to cleanse the person for whom the

ritual is performed. “Dry” objects are the

permanent, de-socialised museum pieces,

for which dissolution is prevented through

the institution of conservation. The article

includes some reflections on Marcel Mauss’

concept of hau as attached to exchange

objects. Finally, the article questions whether

museum objects, as objects within a global

system of exchange, possess anything that

bears relation to related to Mauss’ hau.