ISS 25 (1995).pdf - The International Council of Museums

MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITIES: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH
Nicola Ladkin
Collections Manager - Anthropology
Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. 79409-3193 USA
Museology is a branch of knowledge that is characterized by theoretical debate
surrounding the various aspects of museum existence. Thus, it expands as a result of
investigation into areas of theoretics previously uncharted. While museological debate
may not conform to scientific standards of testing and re-testing with predictable
results, it emphasizes observation, critical thinking, analysis, and shifts in perceptual
focus. Theoretical subjects are based upon systematic, organized knowledge, that
utilizes conceptual reasoning to develop principles and rules and beliefs that seek to
explain a system. Some such explorations may prove fruitless while others may yield
rich rewards.
U museums are committed to building dynamic relationships with communities, they
must also build the theoretical constructs that explain these relationships. Historically,
museologists have examined their relationship with their communities from human and
cultural perspectives. However, this approach ignores the fact that museums are part of
the much larger community that is the global, natural environment. It is theorised here
that ecological concepts and models that explain the processes operating within the
natural environment can be used to explain the processes operating within museums,
wl).ere museums are seen as a species in that natural environment. This is illustrated
through the application of accepted ecological concepts to museological examples,
where community is synonymous with ecosystem. The ecological concepts used in this
investigation are representative of the discipline, not exhaustive. The museological
examples demonstrate the application the concepts, and these can be applied to any
museum scenario.
Museology can learn much from the ecological method of examining the relationship of
parts to a whole. Concepts such as carrying capacity, diverSity, and niche are well
established within ecological literature and provide a holistic mechanism for
understanding the interrelationships within complex systems. Cultural ecology
examines the cultural, psychological, and anthropological aspects of the relationship
between culture and the natural environment (Bennett, 1976). Political ecology
57