Portrait of a young Indian Gentleman : Recontextualizing ethnic objects and images of the colonized

Abstract

An ethnographic museum and the objects it contains oscillates between two orders of existence. On the day-to-day level, it engages in an unending struggle against the localized chaos housed within its entrails; working to maintain and improve its contents, which are composed of extremely heterogeneous collections, pragmatically organized displays and disparate classifications. Heirs of the « curiosity cabinets » (« cabinets de curiosite »), the collections of kings, princes and distinguished ...