Proposal of a General Classification Schema for Museum Objects

Abstract

The current schema used by the Rio de Janeiro`s Museum Network website to classify the museum objects in different museums' collections contains 16 categories that are no longer enough to encompass all the collections of museums about to adhere to the network. These new collections include scientific and intangible cultural heritage objects that needed to be fitted in categories of their own. In order to expand the classification schema, an Ontological approach was used, as well as the Aristothelic classification theory, to analyze and distinguish the different types of museum objects, define new categories and clarify the present ones, including them on the new broadened schema proposed, guaranteeing compatibility with museums already connected to the network. The categories suggested include a broader one, Museum objects, which contains Natural objects (subdivided in Inorganic and Organic objects) and Physical or conceptual products of human culture - Man-made objects (comprising Material culture objects or Artifacts and Conceptual products of human Culture – the first one containing all 16 pre-existing categories); and a new broad category for Cultural heritage objects. This proposal constructs a broader schema then the one in use, while encompassing it and allowing the insertion of any new categories that may appear in the future.