Displaying Origins: Heritage Museums, Cultural Festivals, and National Imageries in the UAE

Abstract

During the last decade discourses and practices relating to heritage ( turāth ) have increasingly gained prominence in the UAE, manifesting themselves not only in the continuing construction and proliferation of national heritage museums, but also through the establishment of heritage villages and cultural festivals. The present article aims at undertaking a comparison of four national museums, identifying in each case the images, which are promoted in the exhibitions to frame a specific national identity. By applying a ‘museum-as-text-approach’ it will become evident that the individual emirates through the museum exhibitions express their own national identities by forging grand narratives which in turn are associated with different origins, the latter forming the discursive basis for mutual differentiation. The comparison will also take into account the heritage villages and popular cultural festivals. In this context the difference between two essential modes of display will be scrutinized, the ‘static’ form of representation and the ‘living museum’, as well as the question as to what extent these different modes of display allow for the expression of individual, regional, or tribal identities within the national discourses. Finally, the various forms of display will be contextualized within a more encompassing trend of heritage production in the UAE. Keywords: Heritage, National Museums, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Heritage Villages, Festivals, Qasr al Hosn, Sites of memory, Bedouin revival