Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

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40 ciples of history, history of art, and archaeology, the last two categories essentially belong to the category of immovable heritage. Until very recently the Directorate of the Heritage of France, whose principle purpose was the preservation of historical monuments, was separate from the Directorate of the Museums of France (French Museums Board). Today it is not unusual to fi nd people supporting this differentiation, which is at the very least strict. Even when expanded worldwide under the aegis of UNESCO, the idea that is fostered especially by ICOMOS, the equivalent of ICOM for historical monuments, is fi rst of all based essentially on monuments and on groups of monuments and sites. Thus the Convention on the World Cultural Heritage stipulates: “For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered cultural heritage: – monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, […] – groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings, […] because of their architecture, […] – sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man, […]. For the purposes of this Convention the following shall be considered natural heritage: natural features, […] – geological and physiographical formations […] – natural sites or natural areas.” (UNESCO 1972). 2. From the mid 1950s, the notion of heritage gradually incorporated all material evidence of man and his environment and became conside- rably wider. Thus folklore heritage, scientifi c heritage and then industrial heritage were gradually integrated into the concept of heritage. The defi - nition of heritage in French-speaking Québec also followed this general tendency: “May be considered heritage all objects or groups of objects, material or intangible, that are collectively recognised or appropriated for their value as evidence and historical memory and which merit being protected, preserved, and enhanced” (Arpin, 2000). This concept refers to all natural or man-made goods and values, whether material or intangible, without restriction of time or space, whether they be simply inherited from the forbears of earlier generations or gathered and preserved to be transmitted to the descendants of future generations. Heritage is a public good; its preservation must be assumed by the community when individuals fail to do so. Individual local natural and cultural characteristics contribute to the conception and building of the universal character of heritage. The concept of heritage differs from the concept of inheritance with regard to time and events: whereas inheritance is identifi ed immediately after a death or when there is a transferral of goods from one generation to another, heritage defi nes all the goods received or gathered and safeguarded by earlier generations that will be transmitted to their descendants. To a certain extent, heritage can be a line of inheritances.
3. For some years the notion of heritage, essentially defi ned on the basis of a western concept of transmission, has felt the impact of the globalisation of ideas, such as the relatively recent concept of intangible heritage. This concept, of Asian origin (in particular from Japan and Korea) is founded on the idea that transmission, to be effective, must essentially be done by human carriers, from whence evolved the idea of living human treasures: “Living human treasure refers to a person who excels above others in performing music, dance, games, plays and rituals which are of outstanding artistic and historical value in their respective countries as envisaged in the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Cultures and Folklore” (UNESCO, 1993). This principle was accepted internationally and endorsed in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. “The intangible cultural heritage means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus pro- moting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. For the purposes of this Convention, consideration will be given solely to such intangible cultural heritage as is compatible with existing international human rights instruments, as well as with the requirements of mutual respect among communities, groups and individuals, and of sustainable development.” (UNESCO, 2003). 4. Heritage covers a fi eld that has become increasingly complex, and in the past few years the uncertainties of its transmission have led to more focused thinking on the mechanisms of building and extending heritage: what exactly is the process of heritage building? Much contemporary research analyses the institution of heritage building beyond the empirical approach, seeing it as the result of strategies and interventions focused on marking and signals (framing). Thus the idea of heritage building is necessary to understand the position in society that heritage represents, rather as others speak of the idea of “artifi cation” (Shapiro, 2004) with regard to works of art. “Heritage is a cultural process or performance that is concerned with the types of production and the negotiation of cultural identity, individual and collective memory, and social and cultural values” (Smith, 2007). If we accept that heritage is the result of the founding of a certain number of values, this implies that these values are the basis of heritage. These values should be examined, but also – sometimes – contested. 41
Page 1: Key Concepts of Museology
Page 4 and 5: With the assistance of the Musée R
Page 7 and 8: F OREWORD The development of profes
Page 9: FOREWORD for Museums, its publicati
Page 12 and 13: PREFACE 12 covered by each term, to
Page 15 and 16: I NTRODUCTION What is a museum? How
Page 17 and 18: I NTRODUCTION everyone shares a com
Page 19 and 20: I NTRODUCTION from reality. The rel
Page 21: I NTRODUCTION In the early 1980s th
Page 24 and 25: 24 New functions that emerged in th
Page 26 and 27: 26 COLLECTION n. - Equivalent in Fr
Page 28 and 29: 28 its assumed materiality as a sta
Page 30 and 31: 30 not mean that the visitor is not
Page 32 and 33: 32 is a theoretical and methodologi
Page 34 and 35: 34 American Association of Museums)
Page 36 and 37: 36 interactions specifi c to this p
Page 38 and 39: 38 tion (the exact meaning of which
Page 42 and 43: 42 5. The institution of heritage a
Page 44 and 45: 44 objects. The museum institution,
Page 46 and 47: 46 time within profi t-making organ
Page 48 and 49: 48 which mobilises diverse technolo
Page 50 and 51: 50 be incapable of using the resour
Page 52 and 53: 52 sory perception, experiment, and
Page 54 and 55: 54 Etymologically speaking museolog
Page 56 and 57: 56 because it includes all the othe
Page 58 and 59: 58 many that attest to a “specifi
Page 60 and 61: 60 museum in its exterior theatre o
Page 62 and 63: 62 In this sense the object is abst
Page 64 and 65: 64 of a language of substitution. W
Page 66 and 67: 66 another museal institution, dest
Page 68 and 69: 68 Committee for the Training of Pe
Page 70 and 71: 70 guide-lecturer or lecturer, who
Page 72 and 73: 72 establishment. The notion of pub
Page 74 and 75: 74 manent ones, part of the fundame
Page 76 and 77: 76 heterogeneous groups of people (
Page 78 and 79: BIBLIOGRAPHY 78 BUCK R., GILMORE J.
Page 80 and 81: BIBLIOGRAPHY 80 KARP I. et al. (Ed.
Page 82 and 83: BIBLIOGRAPHY 82 SCHEINER T., 2007.

Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

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