DEN OPLØSTE SAMLING OG DEN MAGISKE MATERIE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/ta.v0i43-44.107408Resumé
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.
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