The Culture of Objects.docVIP

The Culture of Objects 　　Abstract：For museums，the types and amount of collections have a very significant meaning.For a long time，most of the research on museum collections concentrated on the objects themselves.The research rarely concerned the relationship between act of collecting and collector.Following the rise of museum anthropology in recent years，research on museums has been put into a broader perspective.Now，the concern of the researchers is not limited to the objects in the museum，but extends to the act of collecting in relationship to museums，that is，looking at the process in which objects flow from the field to the museum. 中国论文网 /4/view-7199081.htm 　　As we all know，collecting is indispensable work for most museums.It is through the activities of the museum “collectors” that an important bridge between the object and the museum has been built.Hence，a practical research on the behavior of “collecting” can not only make the static “thing” lively，but can also enable people to think more about the cultural meaning of the flow of things.When Susan M.Pearce reviewed the process regarding the understanding of Western people to the idea of “collecting”，she mentioned that the research on collecting within the context of modern knowledge involved three aspects： Collecting as practice，collecting as poetics，and collecting as politics.Pearces research reminds us to pay attention to the complex relationship between specimens，the act of collecting and collectors. 　　Taking a group of valuable Taiwanese aboriginal specimens found in the Anthropology Museum of Xiamen University，and combining them with related documents， this article analyzes the early ethnological collecting activity of Lin Hunxiang（1901-1958），especially his two trips to aboriginal villages in Taiwan in 1929 and 1935.It does so in order to investigate the close relationship between the development of Anthropology in China with relationship to museums.It will also reflect on the relationship between objec