Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 47

DEPERSONALIZED OBJECTS: PARADOXES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS

Dmitry Baranov

The Russian Museum of Ethnography
4/1 Inzhenernaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
dmitry.baranov()list.ru

Abstract: In ethnographic studies of material culture, things are described primarily as signs of social phenomena; but things themselves remain in the shadows. Even when it comes to museum research, a material object is considered either as an element of the classification series, or as an example of the manufacturing and living techniques in the local tradition, or as a representative of the cultural contexts from which it was removed. The very collection format of museum storage hides the uniqueness of a thing, because the collection is not able to accommodate its singular nature, since each thing is really a “universe of individuality”. The article examines possible ways for museum ethnography to go beyond its inherent anonymous and depersonalizing discourse. As an alternative to the latter, a “biographical” focus is proposed, which allows one to see subjectivity and individuality in things. The uniqueness of a thing is manifested not only in its biography, but also in its very materiality: material, shape, design, texture, color, weight, smell, etc. The close attention of the ethnographic museum to specific objects and the people to whom they belonged makes it possible to highlight those details and particulars, without which it is impossible to understand culture as a whole.

Keywords: ethnographic museum, anonymous discourse, biography of things, singularity, agency, museum collections.

To cite: Baranov D., ‘Obezlichennye veshchi: paradoksy etnograficheskogo eksponata’ [Depersonalized Objects: Paradoxes of Ethnographic Collections], Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 47, pp. 113–136.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2020-16-47-113-136

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/047/baranov.pdf