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Plannifgfor the .friture preszlpposes a backgrazind of experience from the past. Here,
that special, long-rmge vieiv of things provided by museums can give social plclnners
necessclv itgorniation about the posihve and negative effects of present development aizd
offer them constant docunzevztation and anaGysis oj- changes in the social sfruckire.
Siillzultaneozts use of exhibitions mzd other tzeatzs of irEf0riovi available t o /?iusezwis
can increase public zmderstanding of social problems ami!) consequently, improve
prospects for posititle solutions.

Georges Henri Rivire

Museums and natural and human environment


Environment is the sum total of prevailing energy, physical and biological con-
ditions obtaining in the immediate vicinity of living organisms. It is also the
concrete milieu constructed by mad.1 As the science of environment, ecology
exhibits the same duality. Natural ecology and human ecology, however, tend
to interpenetrate each other, indeed to blend. Especially in our time, serious
and urgent problems arise concerning the fate of the entire human race, such
as the using up of natural and mineral resources, pollution, the continuing
industrial and demographic growth.2
Is this dualism, this convergence of the disciplines of ecology, reflected in
the museum system? Is it possible to define the natural environment as the
domain of the science museums proper; can one define the human environment
as the domain of the museums of human and social sciences and those of ad-
vanced technology? Here again, the situation is complex, as shown by a first
glance.
The science museum in most cases makes common cause with the museum
I. cf. Pierre George, of industrial technics, to which it supplies a background of mathematics,
Dictionnaire de la Gographie, physics and chemistry. This last museum presupposes a certain component
Paris, PUF, 1970, p. 15s; also
entries Ecology, Animal of archaic techniques, drawn from history and ethnology; should this archaic
Ecology, Human Ecology, component become substantial, the museum of industrial technics turns into a
Population, in Engclopaedia
Britannica, New York, N.Y., museum of technological history, a branch of the museum of cultural h i ~ t o r y . ~
1964. Both natural environment and human environment are part of it.
2. cf. Edward J. Kormondy,
Concepts of Ecology, Englewood While natural-science museums are concerned with the physical man as the
Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall, 1969. apex of the tree of life they are also concerned with cultural man as the predator
1. This is the attitude of the
Deutsches Museum in Munich. of the natural environment. The museums of the human and social sciences are
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences 27

Il

Painting as illustrative of the environment II


MUSE DES ARTS ET TRADITIONS POPULAIRES,
Paris. Workers belonging to an organization
Even now it)eqz$efftly happeils that paiktitgs b~nzilzor artists are h o t considered known as that of the Tour de France are
for acqz4sition or are pztt o a t qf sight in the art museum reserves. When thg form part giving a ceremonial send-off to one of their
comrades as he leaves on another stage
OJ' the collection o f other kiizds o f mzisemnzs, t h y ~ n nevertheless
q plq an iinportaiZt of the Tour. One of the wrkers and the
role, particularly in so far as t h g depict the contempora~yenvironment. departing companion are drinking
together according to the ritual of the
brotherhood. The weeping mistress of the
man about to leave can be seen. Buildings,
scenes at the port and boats are accurately
depicted. Here is a whole human
environment, now vanished, portrayed by a
folk artist. Dated 1826, signed Leclair.
I2
MUSBEDU VIN DE BOURGOGNE, Beaune.
Until nearly the end of the nineteenth
century, vines in the vineyards of Beaune,
in Burgundy were tied to vertical supports
(chalas). At the onset of winter, the
vine-grower would pull up these props
and arrange them in piles, as can be seen in
this painting depicting a natural scene
modified by man, which has not been seen
for nearly a century. Dated 1883, signed
Flix Naigeon.

I2
1 . Georges Henri Rivire
28

concerned not only with the human environment; they are concerned with the
natural- environment-as -man-sees,-affects -and- conceives--it;-And this;-under---- -- - - -- - - -- - -
their respective forms of covered museums and historical parks.*
Concentrating on historical art, the art museum contributes to the protection
of the human environment. Concentrating on both historical and contemporary
art, it offers a review of the natural and human environment as it is perceived
and figured by the creative artist (Fig. II, I Z ) . ~
As a new form of museum, the neighbourhood museum and the ecomuseum
have an interdisciplinary character and place stress on ecology.

isplaying the human environment with the help of objects and


models in museums of the human sciences
There are two traditional ways open to museums of the human sciences for
portraying the human environment. They may make use of the real things,
isolated or integrated or models, concrete or abstract.
Single or collective real things are the objects collected by the museum one
by one, ideally to a programme. Provided with pertinent informative material
decoded by the visitor, they are evidences, after their kind, of the human envi-
ronment. A harpoon will tell of the technological sub-environment of neolithic
man and a statuette of his religious or artistic sub-environment. A twentieth-
century mask will tell of the social, religious or hrtistic sub-environment of an
African ethnic group. A nineteenth-century French painting of wrestling will
tell of the social and athletic sub-environment of a Breton ethnic group. Inte-
grated real things are the objects which made up a particular ambiance, acquired
as a lot or regrouped by the museum and describable as ecological units.
Interpreted in the same way as before and decoded by the visitor, they show
the human environment more vividly than the isolated specimens. Units of
this kind might be the complete contents of a period room, of a ship or of a
- tomb, transferred to the museum, with or without their. domestic, naval or
funerary architectural sub-environment.
Units of this kind may be unavailable, or lack of space or technical considera-
1
tions may preclude presenting them in the museum. Hence in cases such as
these, use is made of life-size models or models on a reduced or enlarged scale.
For instance, life-size would be used for the cast of a prehistoric statuette or the
facsimile of a manuscript, an enlarged scale for a model of a Gallic coin, and a
miniaturized maquette for showing a castle, or an archaeological, historical or
rural site.
There are certain important aspects of the human environment which require
to be shown but which, by reason of their abstract character, cannot be ex-
hibited using real things. An ethnological model may then be used to show,
say the articulation of work, religious or seasonal feast days in a village com-
munity.

4. cf. in the present article


Audio-visual aids: a new Pieid for exhibiting the environment inset concerning the Museum
at Biskupin.
As of now, audio-visual aids are infiltrating the museums of art and the mu- 5 . cf. Charles Parkhurst,
Assistant Director, National
seums of human sciences. Their role is of great value in the insertion of the Gallery, Washington, in
work of art in its natural and human environment. Applied to laboratories, to Mmezinz and Environment ...
The Environmental Committee,
auditoriums and to facilities of consultation of museums, these means have American Association of
already their models, such as art films and scientific films. It is only a question Museums, Washington, New
York, Arkville Press, I y 71.
of multiplying and of perfecting these models, whether it concerns or not the 6. cf. Duncan F. Cameron,
possessions of the museum. A Viewpoint: The Museum as
a Communication System and
Applied to exhibitions within or outside the museum, they take a form which . Implications for Museum
is not exclusive to museums, far from it, of environmental sound effects, taped Education, Carutor (New
York), Vol. II, No. I, 1968,
programmes, viewers and film-tape playbacks with incorporated or separate P. 13-40.
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences 29

screens, wall sheets, kits, video-cassettes. They may also take the form of a
SOIZe t Zzwzi~esystem applied to ecological units.
A museum gallery, however, is not a laboratory; nor is it an organ of docu-
mentation, such as a library, an image or photo library, an auditorium.
It is a place through which visitors pass, followed by other visitors, who
have come to look rather than to consult, and whose participation is requested.
Hence the need to keep audio-visual programmes intended for museum gal-
leries to a reasonable length. Hence the need to select verbal recorded informa-
tion so as to let the user take in and assimilate the message in the time allowed.
However, there is a danger that the sound and visual output of the devices
may harm the ambience of the objects and models, which is the major element
of the exhibition. A necessity, therefore, is the acoustic or optical insulation of
the audio-visual reception fields.
An audio-visual programme cannot be kept running continuously in a
museum gallery. Otherwise the material to be introduced into the machines
would wear out too rapidly. A not less serious objection is that the museum
audio-visual presentation would become assimilable to one for propaganda
and publicity. The best arrangement is for the emission to be triggered by the
visitor, or, in special cases by a museum attendant at his request; the visitors
acceptance of the medium is in itself participation.
Audio-visual devices and their cultural ammunition are alike fragile. It is
therefore necessary for a check to be kept on their functioning by a skilled and
conscientioustechnician.8 It is further necessary, for the same reason, to provide
for the replacement of worn rraterial from carefully preserved master copies.
A new style needs to be sought for audio-visual documents for the interpreta-
tion of the facts of culture and nature in a museum gallery, a style freed of
everything savouring of publicity or propaganda and implicit in the themes of
the presentation.

Systems of communication available ;o the museum for *

exhibiting the environment


Museums are increasingly using a compound system suitable for the achieve-
ment at once of their objectives of research and teaching and their educational
and cultural objectives. This system consists of distributing the cultural prop-
erty which they hold among four co-ordinated departments, namely, a gallery
or galleries which may be called cultural intended for the general public,
holding the pieces of major interest and a-first choice of the representative
pieces; a gallery or galleries which may be called scientific',^ containing a
second choice of representativepieces, intended for a public of experts, profes-
sional) students and serious amateurs; one or several facilities for the com-
munication of easily transportable objects and of written, visual sound and
audio-visual documents (record library, photograph library, etc.) for cultural
and scientific ends; one or several store-rooms in which the other objects would
7. Portmanteau exhibitions be preserved, classified and referenced in such a way as to enable them to be
which are sent to institutions
of education and culture. consulted by qualified users.
8. Means available to a museum The exhibition of the environment needs space to permit the emphasis on
with considerable financial
resources. Where this is not the quality and techniques desirable. The cultural gallery is better adapted to audio-
case, the museum would visual means for collective utilization. Just as the laboratory and preservation
restrict itself to an outside
technician called in when 1
rooms, the scientific gallery is better adapted to individual utilization.
needed. Of course, a system as highly developed as this would be suitable only for a
9. The two-gallery system is
being put into effect, to give museum with much material at its disposal. But with no more than an exhibi-
only three examples, in the tion gallery, a documents room and a store-room for objects accessible to
paintings department of the
Louvre Museum and the qualified persons, a smaller museum, aided when necessary by local teaching
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, organizations, would be of inestimable value in the work of introduction to the
and at the Muse des Arts et
Traditions Populaires in Paris. environment within its purview.
30 Georges Henri Rivire

Biskupin: exploration and ecological presentation of a Polish


archaeological site
This site was discovered by a schoolmaster in 1933 and has been the scene of
nunzerozis excavations both bej%re and since the mir. The jndings have been considerablt.,
and have shed new light particularGy on the origins of proto-Slavic civilzyation a t
the beginning of the Iron Age and on the or;gi.lts of the Polish State during the
Ear4 &!iddh Ages.
A national archaeologicalpark has been laid out, in ivbich part 03the j r s t Iron
Age settlement has been reconstituted, and there is a site ~nz~sez~m.Tbe orzgiml
retlzdins have been left under water for conservation reasons. The water can be drained
away for a linzitedperiod so that the remains can be studied.

Art museums
The environment, as has already been pointed out, is a Limited-programme
subject for the art museum.10 The latter can take in architecture and town-
planning, arts of space-disposal; or it can ally itself with the history museum
and the science museum in the work of providing an introduction to the
IO. cf. Parkhurst, op. cit., environment.
p. 163.
I I. cf. Duncan F. Cameron,
Backing up the history museum, it can supplement the works it shows by an
The Language of Museum illustration of the environments from which they came and the concepts of the
Interpretation, in Mzmzims,
Socieg, Kioivledge. Special artists who created them; it can help the visitor to feel involved by bringing
number of the Jownal of World him nearer, by one means or another, to the artist from whom he is far sep-
Hisaory/.Cdtwes,No. XIV,
P. 48-57.
arated in time or space.ll
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences 31

'3
MUZEUM w BISKUPINIE, Biskupin.
Reconstituted street and house in the
first settlement.
'4
MUZEUM w BISKUPINIE, Biskupin.
Reconstructed palisade, earthworks and
gateway of the first settlement
()-)-o-400 B.C.).
1.f
MUZEUM w BISKUPINIE, Biskupin. Site
museum: reconstituted interior of a house
in the first settlement.
16
MUZBUM w BISKUPINIB, Biskupin. Site
museum: exhibition of excavated objects
and documentary material.

Backing up the science museum, it can offer an explanation of the materials


and techniques used in the execution of a selection of works which are par-
ticularly representative in this respect.12

History museums
For many years archaeological museums and history museums have gone along
different paths. The first archaeological museum stocked with antiquities
appeared in Rome at the dawn of the Italian Renaissance-the Museum of the
Capitol. I 2. cf. the exhibition Breighel'
et Son Monde (Breughel and
From the nineteenth century onwards the domain of the archaeological His World), Brussels, Muses
museum has been progressively pushed backwards in time and extended in Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire,
1969 (a catalogue has been
space. Defined from the cultural angle, its material, long artistic in character, published).
32 Georges Henri Rivire

has tended subsequently to embrace the whole of the cultural field. Defined
-- -from-the technical-angle,-the material-comes -essentiallyfrom Gxcavations, long- ----

crudely executed, but today conducted on exhaustive principles, whereby


nothing of significance is ignored in the deposit being explored level by level,
whether the remains be human, animal, vegetable or mineral. The yield of
these excavations is from now on subjected to physico-chemical analyses
making it possible to date the items with precision. Summed up, the evolving
policy of the archaeological museum over the years amounts to an even more
exigent and ever more rigorous analysis of the human and natural environ-
ment of the societies where the materials originate (Fig. 13-16).
However, such an evolution has, in general, shown itself up till now with
varying intensity, according to the period concerned. The more ancient the
culture observed, the more the archaeologist concerns himself with the human
and natural environment and vice versa. As a result, for example, the neolithic
exhibit may illustrate much better the manners of hunting, fishing, farming and
processing materials, than exhibits of more recent periods. With the latter the
atmosphere becomes artistic and the objects are distributed and interpreted
more by technical categories o f product (sculpture, painting, ceramics, glass-
ware, etc.) than in terms of their social or ideological significance. The satyr
may be depicted dancing on the oenochoe, but what is of consequence is not
the dance or any other social or cultural behaviour but, more often, the
characteristics of the material and the brush-work. The first example of the
natural-history museum first appeared in seventeenth-century Europe in the
form of portrait galleries. At that time environment meant the attire, the atti-
tude, the accompanists and the accoutrement of the person depicted.
*
The first major example of a national-history museum appeared in France at
the time of the Revolution, and the second in the France of Louis-Philippe.
Curiously, both pay some slight deference to the ecology: the first with its
remains of ruined or disused monuments, cobbled together in a pre-romantic
ambience; the second, however, event-oriented in its principle, with its large
paintings depicting battles and its commemorative medals. Meanwhile most
history museums have been confined to their own nation or region, depending
on their geographical scope.
Whether nationally or regionally oriented, the traditional types of history
museum in most cases despise the illustration of the society in all its aspects and
present their material arranged by technical and artistic forms, to the detriment
of its economic, social, cultural and ideological significance. And if they do
bring out these aspects, they generally do it with evidence in the form of art
works. In fact, in placing the accent on society, history museums ignore the
role o f dominated society and belittle the expression o f social environment,
All too often it is the great event, the great personage that counts. The museum
of the royal palace recounts the Sovereign's battles and amours but is dumb
about the peasant, whose labour contrcibuted so much to its being a palace.
In the developed countries regional museums with multidisciplinary pro-
grammes generally arrange these programmes by departments, e.g. natural
history, archaeology, history, art and folklore, with no correlation established
between them. We are shown the portrait of the local lord all right, but not the
peasants' corvCe. We see the stew-pot but not the chicken stew13 nor the local
breed of p o ~ l t r y . 1We
~ are shown the Bambara shepherd's staff but nothing
about the mode of pastoralism in that part of Africa.
In the developing countries the multidisciplinary and single-disciplinecentral
museums show the same tack of cordation between the exhibition sectors
13. Henri IV, King of France,
expressed the wish that each covered, generally natural sciences, archaeology, history and ethnology.
peasant in his Kingdom should Archaeological museums and history museums, however, tend to come closer
be able to eat 'boiled fowl' for
his Sunday meal. together. A few examples only will be quoted, drawn from the West and the
14.In this kind of museum East showing in every case the progress of the system of periodization and of
domestic animals are generally
forgotten. the concepts of history.
Role of museums of a r t and of human and social sciences 33

A /
KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR DE TROPEN,
Amsterdam. Children being invited by a
museum demonstrator to try playing the
gamelatg.
I8
KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR DE TROPEN,
Amsterdam. Javanese gunzelatg being
demonstrated to children.
I7
The Tropical. Museum, Amsterdam: a way of studying tlie people of
the tropics, seen in their economic, social and cultural environment
and with regard to their heritage and development
The Tropical Mzisezim is a b r a d qf the R y a l Tropical Institute (I<oriinkZ&4 *

Imtitwt voor de Tropen) iut Amsterdam, which is a Co-operatve research, traitzing and
educatonaZ orgam'yatiofa. It pats on comtantiy changing exhibitions dealing with
variotis regions atzd themes, arranges programmes o f participatiorz and creative activg
aad prepares travellitg exhibitions a?idkits.
With the help o f a detnonsjrator, some visitors t o the " m tgi their hand at the
gamelang, iz4ich provides the nzz,sicdZ accoinpamkent to the Indonesian shadow
theatre.
34 Georges Henri Rivire

Expression of the social environment with the aid of a


three-dimensional model I9
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, New York.
Three-dimensional sociological model
Ethnologcal and'natzdral science inz.ueims generalb m e photographs together with showing the organization of society in
objects, or else doramas, t o portray the socal environment. Three-dtnensonal Africa, standing at each entrance to the Hall
of Mata in Africa. Rods and signs in a
socologcal models are asyet rare4 zLsed, variety of shapes and colours show how, in
theory, in any given African nation, the
tribal, clan, lineage, sublineage and family *

systems interlink according to sex and


according to individuals living or dead.
Roleofmuseums of art and of human and social sciences

For about the last twenty years, if I am not mistaken, at the Hermitage
Museum, two sections in the archaeology department on Scythian and Slavonic
culture respectively have stood out resolutely from the other sections in this
department in dealing with social, economic and cultural themes, backed up by
clever cartography.
Established in Washington in 1964 by the Smithsonian Institution, the large
and magnificent United States Museum of History and Technology is con-
cerned not so much with political history and the history of events as with the
technical, economic, social, demographic and cultural history of the American
people.
In the new layout introduced around 1968 the Department of Greek and
Roman Antiquities of the British Museum has abandoned the classical formula
of subdivisions by techniques with contents in dated series for subdivisions by
periods with complex and selective contents. One such is the Roman Britain
subdivision which, with themes comprising economics, techniques, the society,
the clash of native and Roman cultures and human ecology, and, perhaps the
most remarkable, its renovated galleries.
Likewise abandoning its subdivisions by techniques, the department of
Greek and Roman antiquities of the Louvre Museum is preparing a new layout
with a succession of period exhibits with complex and eclectic contents on the
one hand, and study series on the other.
Through progressive approximation archaeological museums and history
museums end by merging with a system of successive mixed-content period
exhibits from the earliest times to our own day. By way of conclusion I shall
give a few examples.
From as long ago as the inter-war period in the Soviet Union, and since the
Second World War, in the peoples democracies, a good many local museums
have been effecting a periodiaation on the following lines: pre-feudal society,
feudal society, capitalist society, socialist society.
The frontier between archaeological and historical museums has also been
abolished, since the last war, in museums most ambitious in scale, e.g. museums
of urban history in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Stockholm and in the Hungarian
National History Museum in Budapest.
Rennes affords yet another example with the Muse de Bretagne started in
1946. Here, broadly speaking, the sub-themes of the periods have not been
determined by the collections available in advance, but by the structures of
history. In the last section to be opened, on the origins of Brittany, an initial
sub-theme deals with Brittany before mans arrival there, and the human periods
are presented in the context of the natural environment. The last section, cur-
rently in preparation, will deal with the Brittany of modern times of the future.15
A large department on the history of the Netherlands was opened in 1971,
in Amsterdam, in the Rijksmuseum. There are presented successive periods
of human history in their complexity with an accent, however, on the artistic
expression and the role of the popular structures in the society. The futurology
of the Netherlands is presented through the medium of a rich collection of
diagrams prepared by the national planning services.
A project for an Algerian national-history museum is under study in Algiers
to be presented in eight periods ranging from geological times to the foresee-
I j . cf. Jean Yves Veillard, the
able future in a detailed and consecutive context of natural ecology.1G problem of the history museum,
From this competition between archaeological museums and history mu- with reference to the museum
of Brittany in Rennes. In
seums of which I have mentioned a few aspects 1shall attempt to draw a few Musertm, Vol. XXIV, NO. 4,
conclusions. 972, P. 193-203.
16. cf. S. A. Baghli, Les
It is difficult to see how any but the most jagged of saw-tooth boundary lines Muses dHistoire et leur
can be traced between the two types of museum in chronological terms, in view Contribution au Dveloppement
des Pays du Tiers Monde,
of the great diversity of patterns of cultural development througlout the world. Museins, Society, Krioivledge
What differences there are in this respect, between Europe and pre-Columbian (special number of the Joinrnal
of World Hi.rtory/Czdfares,
America, between Maghreb and New Guinea, to go no further. op .sit)... __ .- ____ .
36 Georges Henri Rivire

20
Terrace farming in the Cvennes: -
one-aspect-of-the natural environment as
modified by man, a traditional feature of
the Cvennes but now disappearing.
Actual examples of this will be observed
during ecological excursions organized in
the Cvennes and the Causse region for
young people of the district and tourists,
One example can be seen from one of the
museum's terraces. A model of this type of
farming will be displayed at the Cvenol
Museum, in one of the rooms dealing with
the National Park.
21
MUSECVENOL, Le Vigan. One of the
museum buildings. In the foreground is
the twelfth-century bridge, which can also
be seen from one of the museum's terraces.
22"
Abandoned Cvennes farmhouse restored
by volunteers from the Association oE the
Compagnons du Cap, using traditional
techniques and materials as recommended
by the National Park, It is now used as a
shelter for hikers. A view of it will be on
display in the Cvenol Museum in one of
the rooms devoted to the National Park.
20
The museum, which stands beside the
National Park, intends to encourage the
maintenance or careful restoration of rural The Gtveqol Museum: a natural and human environment
buildings that have fallen into disuse as a undergoing rapid change, shown in a multidisciplinary museum of
result of the industrial revolution and
which could be converted into hikers' modest proportions at the gateway to the Cvennes National Park
shelters, cultural centres or holiday homes
under a properly directed cultural tourism The Cvenol Mzsezun was set zq in 19 63 by the smalk town d' Le V i a n (Gard,
policy. France); it is hozbsed h an old silk-spinning mill, datingfront the end o f the
eighteenth centuy, a@oining a former BeBedctine nzonastelcy. It has been carying ozit its
progranzme on the ecology of the Cvennes since 1970, with the assistance o f the
National Park.

22
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences 17

23
M u s h CVENOL, Le Vigan. Defence
against Wolves and The Pig; two themes
from the ethnography room.
24
MUSBECBVENOL, Le Vigan. Silkworm
cocoons on branches of heather; part of the
silkworm cultivation display in the
ethnography room.
2/
MUSECVENOL, Le Vigan. Hearth of
the family room in a country dwelling.
Cvennes, early twentieth century: diorama..
26
MUSECVENOL, Le Vigan. Loom for
weaving silk stockings, part of the silk
industry display in the ethnography room.
This machine is an article used in a regional
industry which flourished from the
nineteenth century onwards.

26

27

27
Mus5 CVENOL, Le Vigan. Neolithic
axe-heads discovered in the Causse de
Blandas: part of the display in the history
room.
28
MLJSECVENOL, Le Vigan. Entrance to
the room containing material on Andr
Chanson, a contemporary writer born in the
Cvennes.
28
38 Georges Henri Ri$re
%

The excavation criterion is no longer clear-cut by reason of the greater


-- --- - .- __ - - -- -
-- -*m-rangf -modern- digs. -Hericeforward-another source-for knowledge 05
the environment is added to the traditional ones of objects, iconography, and
written records, namely the oral,in so far as it is an expression of tradition
which may run back to a far-distant past. Our knowledge of the nineteenth-
century form of traditional French society, for instance, deper.ds on the joint
interpretation of the yield of excavations past and present, of objects col-
lected directly in the society, of iconographic documents of varied periods
and of oral traditions written and, if need be, outside the society. Here, too,
it is difficult to draw a line between the two types of museum.
One of the most effective ways of arousing the visitors interest and, more
generally, that of the community which supports the museum, is to show the
future implications of trends to be observed in the section devoted to the con-
temporary period in a history museum. If the archaeological museum wishes
to open windows on the future, it should become a history museum.
In this particular case, however, theory is less important than practice, and
no international museums regulations exist compelling a particular museum
to place itself in a particular category of museum in virtue of a particular
definition or a particular terminology.
The formulas vary, stemming as they do from the local, regional or national
museum system, and determined as they are by the aspirations of the popula-
tion, the experts available and the material possibilities.
What is important, regardless of whether the museum calls itself an archaeo-
logical or a history museum, is that the community which supports it should
feel involved; that it be given an exposition of its historical heritage as a
trampoline for its future development; that, with the museums help, it learn
to know its-human and natural environment better.

EthnollogicaP mu,~ e u m s
Ethnology is the science of human groups, considered in their idiosyncracy.17
t
A large number of museums throughout the world are concerned with this
17. cf. A. Leroi-Gourhan, discipline. The first of them appeared during the latter part of the nineteenth
LExprience Ethnologique, century, already conforming to the three most common models in this category:
Ethnologie Gnrale, Encyclopdie
de la Pliade, 1968,p. 1816-18. the general ethnological museum, the regional ethnological museum and the
cf. also G. H.Rivitre, open-air museum.
Smnare Mzuologiqae National,
Algiers, Febrtaary 1969, Paris, Many problems which the museums in this discipline pose have parallels in
ICOM, 1969, P. 45-53 the history museums. I shall not go over this ground again here save to under-
(duplicated).
18. cf. Leroi-Gourhan, op. cit., line major roles which ethnological museums are called on to fill. These roles
p. 1817. consist in: teaching mutual understanding between cultures and peoples, in
19. The Museum of Niamey is
one of the most noteworthy their points of resemblance and their points of difference (Fig, 17, IS); com-
examples of open-air bating racial prejudice; expressing culture in all its different aspects, be they
ethnological museums for the
presentation of the human technical, economic, social or aesthetic, concrete or abstract, in the context of
environment (cf. Mmeum, their natural and human environment, in their world as they experience it,
Vol. XXIV, No. 4). The
current issue contains an . operate it and conceive it;18 illustrating the historical heritage of living popula-
account of an exceptional tions as a trampoline for development; helping the peoples o newly inde-
experiment, consisting of a
major structurization of an pendent countries to become aware of their national identity.19
ethnological gallery around an
ecological theme (cf. article on
the new gallery in M a n n Museums of the social sciences
Africa, American Museum of
Natural History, New York).
The environment is featured in It is the function of sociology to establish advance frames of reference which
the renovated museum of clearly make it possible to explain the traits whereby any distinctive group fits
general ethnology recently
opened in West Berlin. into a social mould.20 In the face of terms of reference as broad as these, social-
20. cf. Leroi-Gourhan, op. cit., science museums are by way of being rare birds in the international repertory
p. 1818.
21. Only a few museums of of museums.21It is tempting to seekthe reasons for this.
social sciences are listed in the As an abstract discipline, sociology does not appear to be interested in the
archives of the Unesco/ICOM
. Documentation Centre. language of the object, the real thing whose vital communication is one of
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences . 39
I
the museums major attributes. While sociology uses diagrams it usually does
S in the two-dimensional form, by w reason of its overt preference for the written
word. It lacks at present the relatively large number of mass platforms available
to archaeology and ethnology, with the press, radio and television. It does not
yet feel the need to equip itself with a verbal language of wide diffusion, trans-
posed from a scientific verbal language nearly incomprehensible to the layman.
All these are perhaps circumstances which account for the small number of
sociological exhibitions, the tenuous contacts between sociology and museology
and that rarity of specimen museums in this domain of which I have spokenzz
with the exception, of course, of the accomplishments of one sociological
branch of the museum, the pedagogical museum.
To tell the truth, if sociology does not use the museum, it is used by the
museum, in so far at least as the museum avails itself of the rigorous methods of
sociology to evaluate the reactions of its real public and to estimate its potential
p~blic.2~
At allevents, an iqcrease in the numbers of social-sciences museums and more
frequent inclusion of sociological themes in historical, artistic and ethnological
exhibitions would contribute to building up the image of discipline useful to
modern societywith a public which too often ignores it when it does not confuse
it with technocracy.
Sociology would gain access to new communication media, both visual and
audio-visual, those in fact which the museum already has at its disposal, adapted
to the specific needs of sociology; statistical and structural three-dimensional
modelsz4(Fig. 19); sound-tracked and moving graphic diagrams in the form
of superimposed transparencies and films; figurative presentations in the man-
ner of cartoon strips; real things serving as concrete and vivifying symbols,
inlaid in the visual sociological communication.

Neighbourhood museums
Mz/sezm has described this new type of museum which has already passed from 22. A gallery is supposed to be
the stage of experiment to that of success. The Anacostia Neighborhood Mu- under way, relating to social
structures, in a large American
seum is a remarkable example of this type of museum; started in Washington museum of natural history. The
with the assistance of the Smithsonian I n s t i t u t i ~ nIt
. ~serves
~ a community of Muse des Arts et Traditions
Populaires, Paris, announces a
some zo,ooo persons, in the black ghetto of Washington. temporary exhibition on the
The neighbourhood museum is not a museum in the traditional sense of the .
2 z cf. Mzfserivz. Vol. XXII.
family.
word. Following the acquisition of a Mobile Division and thanks to the NO. 314, p. 204-11.
additional facilities to house both an Arts and Crafts Centre and a research 24. Such as the remarkable
three-dimensional sociological
centre and library, it has become at once a museum, a multi-media centre, a model featured in the first part
skills training facility, a meeting place for community groups and a cultural of the allery Mati iti Africa
in the imerican Museum of
arts centre.z6 History in New York.
Here people dance, sing and work, debate social issues, study and create :T. cf. Zora B. Martin,
Urban Ecology and the Inner
Afro-American culture and put their hands to the museographic clay in this liv- City Museum, Museam and
ing neighbours museum, actually a multidisciplinary museum of urban ecology EtiviyonnzetJt, op. cit., p. 168-71.
The Anacostia Museum was
created by a poor community to be held up as an example to great museums. the subject of a communication
to ICOM in 1971, presented,
together with a film, by its
From the open-air ethnological museum to the ecomuseum Director, John IGnard.
26. Of two of the most
striking exhibitions put on by
The name ecomuseumyis a new one, but the idea is by no means new and to the Anacostia Museum, one
be found in germ, and in more than the germ, in various parts of the museum held on the premises and
organized at the request of the
world. youth commission of the
Its most obviously recognizable ancestor is the open-air museum: a collection museum was devoted to This
Thing called Jay?, and the other,
of specimens of traditional architecture, mainly rural, transferred to a park a travelling exhibition, was
along with their domestic, agricultural craftsmen; or other equipment or with staged by the children,
adolescents and adults of the
period items from elsewhere and with re-creation of their original surroundings. community and was entitled
This type of museum is particularly well represented in Scandinavia, where it The Rat: Matzs Itiviied
Aflictoon. cf. Mz~serm,
originated. Several hundred such museums exist in the world. Vol. XXIV, NO. I, 1972.
40 Georges Henri Rivire

29
Position of Bou Sada (Algeria).
- -- -
Woman of Bou Sada. Painting signed
Gtienne Dinet.
31
Bou Sada: the oasis on the edge of the
wadi, with rocky hills on the horizon.

CONSTANTINE

e Ghardaia

The Bou Saiida ecomuseum: a medium-sized project in an oasis of the


Algerian Sahara
A French orientalist, tienne Dnet, painted the people.and landscapes o f Bozi Sudda
about the beginning of the twentieth centay. He lived there and became a cotivert to
Islam. He is buried there in a tomb ivhich looks out over the desert.
' A miseam dedicated to ths painter is t o be set ztp in the oasis. At present, it is

expected that the niziseum zvll take the form of ay2 ecomzlsezm based on Algeratz idem,
and ivth the folloiung programme:
I . In a building t o be special4 constrzicted, Algeria12 and Saharan in sole, there zvill
be a joint exhibition of the l$e and the artistic and literacy work of
?tienne Dinet, arranged in chronologcal order (Fig.3 o).
2. In the same balding there will be. an exhbition of the natnrad and humafi histoTy
of Bou Saida, from geologicad times t o the present dayJ in three successive perods:
bffore, dziring and since the tme of .?tieme Dinet (Fig. 3 I and 3 2 ) .
3. Near this buijding, where the oasis meets the desert, the hozlse, garden and tomb of
tienne Dinet will be preserved; und an anaphithentre, czit oat of the rock, ivill be
ased as a rneetitii-$lace and pkace o f entertainmentfor h e people o f Bou Saida and
their guests. (Fk. 29, 3 3-41).
4. Throzghout the oasis and its surroundings there will be a network of paths leading
to representative monuments, districts, and areas of both natural and man-made
beauo. .
Generall'y speaking, evey effort zvll be made t o ensure that the people of Bou Sada
f e e l that the ecomuseztnz is their affair, by representing the artistic heritage of tbe towi
and its development, givngyoungpeople apart to play in the preservation of examples of
traditional architecture, promoting a new s$e of architecture, based on regional
tradition, and encouraging cultzJral towspz of a high standard, iuhich will be projtable
t o Bou Sada.
Role of museums of art and of human,and social sciences 41

34

32
Sand rose: gypsum crystals, found
particularly in the desert around
Bou Sada.
33
Pistol belonging to Abdel Kader
(c. 1808--1883), a prominent figure in the
Algerian Resistance, who lived for a while
at Bou Sada.
34
etienne Dinets house and tomb, Bou Sada,
where the oasis meets the desert.
33
42 Georges Henri Rivire

?/

3/
A working-class caf in the town of
Bou Sada.
?6
Mosque of the Palm Tree, eleventh century:
entrance passage, Bou Sada.
37
Interior of the Mosque of the Palm Tree,
Bou Sada.
36

37
Role of museums of art and of human and social sciences 43

39 ,
38
School buildings under construction,
Bou Sada.
39
Faade of the El Harmel Mosque, early
twentieth century, Bou Sada.
40
The tomb of Btienne Dinet, Bou Sada.
41
Doorway of the El Harmel Mosque,
Bou Sada.
44 Georges Henri Rivire

T o these groups of ecological micro-units, the open-air ethnological museum


___ - __ ._ _ _ - -__- _- .- -_ --- - - __
- - .. -_ -
geneally- addg ne r m ~ e - ~ i l a i ~ g s ~ t aoi i ~
theSite
d- -r-citom-biltin
which coniplementary exhibitions, permanent or temporary, of furniture, speci-
mens of folk art, costumes, etc., are housed. Examples are the Lingby Open-air
Museum near Copenhagen and the Welsh Folk Museum of Saint Pagans, which
is a branch of the National Museum of Wales.27
A step further from these developments, the ecomuseum consists essentially
of two interrelated museums-a spatial museum which is an open-air museum,
and a temporal museum which is enclosed. The underlying idea was developed
in France and in Algeria from!different starting points.
The spatial museum comprises a collection of contiguous or separated
parcels each of which is an ecological unit representative of the regional envi-
ronment, on which there may or may not be buildings of cultural interest
preserved k sihi or transferred from elsewhere, aad fully equipped, as in the case
of the open-air ethnological museums.
The chronological museum houses collections of specimen objects and
models plus audio-visual programmes, also representative of the regional envi-
ronment arranged by periods, from geological times to the present day.
27. A theory of the open-air
museum wa adopted by way The forecasting of the future, or futurology, is not denied a place in the eco-
of a conclusion to an ICOM museum, far from it. In the chronological museum it can systematically be
symposium on open-air
museums (ICQM New$, shown at the end of the periods, usually presented in the form of models and
Vol. II, No. I , February 1958, audio-visual programmes representative of projects adopted or under con-
p. 22-5). Mzueimn has on
various occasions published sideration, or even contiadictory projects. In the spatial museum it may, from
artides on open-air museums, time to time, bring about exhibitions of new accomplishments or experiments.
and in Darticular in Vol. X.
No. I, y957. Planned on these lines, the ecomuseum does indeed seem to be likely to
28. By the way, far from our achieve on a modest scale, all of the basic aims of the museum.
minds is the idea that the
mincide of interdisciDlinaritv It can serve as a research and experiment facility for specialists in the natural
Is evident in ecomusums . and human sciencesYz8 more particularly ecology which is their common bond.
only; it i s brought out in
museums of other disciplines It can ensure the preservation of invaluable samples of architectures and sites
also; e.g, the Tropical Museum threatened with disappearance.
in Amsterdam.
29. In the setting of the It can play a part in the education and culture of a very wide audience: a
Regional Nature Park of the local public who see their origins depicted-these even down to the still
Landes de Gascogne:
Ecomuseum of the Landes de fresh impress of a recent past-who feel still more involved with the museum
Gascogne at Sabres (cf. in the by its evocation of their present and the for6cast of their future which the
present issue, page 79, an
article by Franois Moniot). In ecomuseum encourages them to build; a regional, national and international
the setting of the regional public, for whom it provides an explanation of the country which attracts their
Nature Park of Brittany:
ecomuseum on the island of visiting and subjects for reflection with regards to their own countries; an intra-
Ushant and of a high valley in regional or extra regional schools public escorted by teachers ; groups pro-
the Arre mountains. In the
neighbourhood of the National ceeding from cultural organizations escorted by those in charge. *

Park of the Cvennes: Several ecomuseums .are in process of installation in France, either in the
ecomuseum called Cvenol
Museum (cf. above page 36 setting of nature parks (nature reserves) (Fig. 20-28) or Other eco-
and inset plate). museums are under consideration in Fran~e.~O An ecomuseum is under study
In the setting of the
urban community of Le in Algeria, i n ~ a noasis of the north Sahara at Bou Sada (Fig. 29-41).
Creusot-les-Mines: Ecomuseum
of Industrial Man.
30. Especially in the setting Conclusion
of the National Park of the
Cvennes, in the neighbourhood
of Mont Lozre and the source Since the subject of human ecology is a condition rather than a thing . . . the
of the Tarn; and on the shores condition, rather than the things that exist under the condition, is the central
of the Etang de Berre, at
Istres, an Ecomuseum of theme of an ecological e~hibit.~1
Industrial Man. This proposition advanced by an American museologist in an article on the
3 I. G. Carol1 Lindsay,
Creating and Building principles of environmental exhibits may serve as a conclusion to my study.
Environmental Exhibits, May the museums of human and social sciences take it to heart and find
n/~me&~ns and the Environment,
op. cit., p. 131. inspiration from the experiments which this article evokes, responsible as they
32. cf. generally, already are for introducing their communities and their foreign visitors to the problems
quoted in respect of art
museums, the publication by of human environment-nay more, as we have seen, the problems of the natural
the American Association of environment, so closely are the two domains d o ~ e - t a i l e d . ~ ~
Museums: n/fiisezMns and
Environment. [Trandated from French]

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