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Tuesday, November 09, 2004, 08:10

Anthropology in Museums: Not only the authentic should survive

The Australian

Faced with a culture in peril, what is the right thing for a museum to do? Should it take the traditional approach, documenting it so that at least some record exists when it disappears? Or should it involve itself in keeping it alive? Richard Kurin is pushing for the second approach. Trained as an anthropologist, he describes himself as a "culture broker" – someone who develops new and mainstream audiences for diverse cultures.

One of the things that concerns Kurin is that people are being turned into cultural consumers rather than producers. Museums, he says, have to go beyond merely documenting cultures and instead become agents in their protection. Curators should go out and work in communities, involving them and sharing knowledge honestly and openly.

One of the most troublesome words in the debates about intangible heritage is authenticity. Although audiences crave authenticity in the cultural sphere, no one knows quite how to define it. >> continue


SEE ALSO:
Richard Kurin: Preserving the magic - cultural heritage (Unesco Courier)

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