Adèle Chevalier
ORGANON, Volume 55, 2023, pp. 53-78
https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.23.003.18780In November 1933 the room of Exotic Prehistory at the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro (MET) was first opened. Initially focusing on Africa, the project evolved when Paul Rivet incorporated Asian territories into it. The organizing of the room was partly the result of the institutionalization and professionalization of the French Science of Man during the interwar period, which was common to both ethnographic and ¨ anthropological collections. However, the acquisition and management of prehistoric collections, particularly those from Indochina, had their own specificities. The aim of this article is to examine, from a museum perspective, the concept of exotic prehistory, the types of objects that are promoted through it and the ways in which it was created and used at the MET.
Adèle Chevalier
ORGANON, Volume 52, 2020, pp. 75-100
https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.20.004.12930The fact that ethnographical collections, often ancient, are preserved in archaeological museums nowadays might not be obvious. The material culture of living societies is not, indeed, the priority of archaeologists, who are mainly interested in societies of the past. However, a museological and historical approach makes it possible to study these collections and highlight their differential management according to institutions and epistemological developments in the human sciences, since the middle of the 19th century.