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

ON MUSEUM, COMMUNITIES AND THE RELATIVITY OF IT ALL
Tereza Cristina Scheiner - Brazil
The universe is relative.
Time, matter and spac:e are relative.
Life and cuffure are relative .
... Why should the museum be absolute?
The aim of ICOFOM is to study and investigate Museology as a scientific discipline. With
such purpose we have been developing a task of sistematization of terms where concepts such as
those of Museum, Community, Object and Heritage are constantly under exam. This work has
resulted in the development of a theoretical and methodological basis that is presently recognized
as museum theory.
Museum theory, it is said, enhances knowledge about the Museum as a unity of study in all
its aspects, functions, purposes and relations with reality. It helps building knowledge about
museums and their role in society, as a tool for understanding the past and shaping a beller future .
But in what consists museological knowledge? How can museum theory investigate, for example,
the relationship between Museum and Communities from a truly scientific point of view?
Let us start from the beginning, pulling under exam ...
a) THE IDEA OF MUSEUM
It is known that, although actualized, the official definition of Museum does not fit the
necessities of theoretical study, being unable to encompass the plurality of initiatives presently
recognized as 'museums' - not only in the practical field but also in the field of ideas. Twenty years
, of systematic study on theoretical Museology have not clarified this question.
This has been one of the main problems of ICOFOM, since most papers on museum theory still
refer to specific functions or characteristics of the Museum, without making clear what idea of
Museum lies behind the words. For this reason, it has been difficult to establish the chains of
relationships between one paper to the other, and consequently to develop a critical analysis of the
annual production of ICOFOM conceming the specific themes under exam.
Since we are now invited to analyse the relationship between Museum and Communities, a
first question arises: what are we referring to?
Having in mind that the Museum is a phenomenon, and that the different forms of
museums are nothing more than representations (or expressions) of such phenomenon in different
times and spaces, according to the characteristics of each social group, we may understand
Museology not as a science that investigates the museum institution or the "museological facf',
but as a scientific discipline that investigates the idea of Museum developed by each
society, in each time, through its applications to reality. That is made possible through the
investigation of the different forms of relationship between man and reality, that is, of the
relationships between man, culture and the natural environment.
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