Museo De Research Articles

Rostros de Oceanía en el Museo de La Plata: itinerarios de una colección

Molding and casting faces, hands, and feet were part of the various knowledge-making strategies of anthropologists since the 19th century. This study focuses on a collection of facial masks obtained by the German anthropologist Otto Finsch from live subjects of native people from Oceania and held by the Museo de La Plata, Argentina. We’ve analysed the materials, archives, and catalogues; also, oral testimonies of museum workers that were in contact with this collection. Firstly, we revise how these masks came to be, how they were acquired by this museum, how they were exhibited and what happened with them after they were removed from the exhibition. Second, we remark on some points of discussion around this collection on the assumption that these materials represent scientific heritage that not only accounts for the history of anthropology and the context in which it was constituted but that it is also feasible to be reactivated into new narratives.

Synonymy, redescription, molecular characterisation, and new distribution data of species of Stilestrongylus and Guerrerostrongylus (Nematoda, Heligmonellidae) parasitic in sigmodontine rodents from Argentina and Uruguay: a collection-based survey

In this study, we review the taxonomic status of the parasitic nematodes Stilestrongylus oryzomysi and Guerrerostrongylus uruguayensis (Heligmonellidae), which had been described only once from sigmodontine rodents from Argentina and Uruguay, respectively. To this aim, we examined 38 complete helminth sets deposited in the Helminthological Collection of the Museo de La Plata (MLP-He), Argentina, including type material of G. uruguayensis, S. oryzomysi, and a closely related species, Stilestrongylus azarai. We also examined voucher rodent specimens deposited in the Mammal Collection of the Museo de La Plata (MLP-Mz) to assess the identity of the symbiotypes and other rodent hosts. Based on these observations, S. oryzomysi is proposed as a junior synonym of S. azarai; the identity of the symbiotype of S. oryzomysi and Trichofreitasia lenti (Heligmonellidae) is emended from Oligoryzomys flavescens to Akodon azarae; G. uruguayensis is proposed as a junior synonym of Guerrerostrongylus zeta; S. azarai is redescribed based on type and voucher material; and the latter species and G. zeta are molecularly characterised using the ITS+ gene. We extend the geographic distribution of S. azarai to include Uruguay and provide a new host record for T. lenti (A. azarae, type host species), a new host record for G. zeta in Argentina (O. flavescens), and the first record of helminths for Oligoryzomys nigripes in Uruguay.

A Territorialized Memory of Colombian Conflict

A review of Huellas de desaparición: Los casos de Urabá, Palacio de Justicia y territorio Nukak (Traces of Disappearance: The Cases of Urabá, Palace of Justice and Nukak Territory), an exhibition held in Bogotá, Colombia, at the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), December 10 to July 18, 2021, and in Medellín, Colombia, at the Museo de Antioquia, September 15, 2022 to January 2, 2023; the exhibition was curated by Forensic Architecture and the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad la Convivencia y la No Repetición de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP). The exhibition used architectural tools to reconstruct three episodes of the Colombian armed conflict: the displacement of the Nukak Indigenous people, the dispossession of Campesino farmers to accommodate banana plantations for multinational companies, and the response of Colombian armed forces to the siege of Colombia’s Palace of Justice.

Two new species of the armored catfish genus Panaqolus (Siluriformes, Loricariidae) from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Currently four described species of genus Panaqolus have been reported from the Amazon River basin in Ecuador: P. albomaculatus (Kanazawa 1958), P. dentex (Günther 1868), P. gnomus (Schaefer & Stewart 1993) and P. nocturnus (Schaefer & Stewart 1993). Revision of specimens deposited at the fish collection of Museo de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN), Quito, indicated the presence of two additional species, both new to science: P. orcesi n. sp. and P. pantostiktos n. sp. The new species are similar to each other, and to P. albomaculatus and P. nix Cramer & Rapp Py-Daniel 2015 in having the head, body, and fins covered with light dots. Diagnostic characters comprise differences in color pattern, including size and density of light dots on head, body, and fins; as well as various morphometric characters. Apparently, both new species reach larger sizes than previously described species of Panaqolus. The two new species can be included in the subgenus Panafilus (Lujan et al. 2017); they come from the Tigre and Napo River basins, two isolated tributaries in the western Amazon.

Identification of long-preserved specimens reveals the historical geographic range of the Patagonian lamprey Geotria macrostoma (Burmeister, 1868) in southern South America.

The lamprey genus Geotria Gray, 1851 currently includes only two species: G. australis and G. macrostoma. However, taxonomic relationships within the genus have traditionally been ambiguous and difficult to establish due to the extreme changes in morphology, dentition, and coloration that lampreys undergo during their life cycles, particularly during upstream migration and sexual maturation. Consequently, several lamprey specimens held in museum collections have remained unidentified, especially those from Argentina. In this study, a series of morphometric characters were subjected to discriminant function analysis (DFA) to identify the lamprey species collected during 1867-2004 from the de la Plata River and Patagonia. These specimens are housed at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" in Buenos Aires, the Museo de Historia Natural de Montevideo, and the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm. Based on the proportions of the length of the oral disc, prebranchial, and pre-caudal body regions, and the depth of the trunk, DFA provided conclusive evidence that the specimens corresponded to the recently revalidated G. macrostoma (Burmeister, 1868), which was originally incorrectly named as Petromyzon macrostomus Burmeister, 1868, Exomegas macrostomus (Berg, 1899), Geotria chilensis (Berg, 1895), and Geotria macrostoma f. gallegensis Smitt, 1901, as well as other nontype museum individuals of uncertain taxonomic status. The identifications of these long-preserved museum specimens provided key information on the historical geographic range of Argentinian lampreys and suggest that the disappearance of the species reported from northern localities (the Pampean Region) can be attributed to the degradation of their critical habitats, primarily caused by anthropogenic impact and climate change.

The neighborhood assembly in the art museum: Practicing cultural citizenship

Abstract The crisis of democracy calls upon public art museums to reflect on what is expected from them as public spaces. This article investigates the art museum as an engaged political participant in its local surroundings and the neighborhood assembly as the platform of this participation. Through original interviews with museum professionals, the article examines three examples of museum-based neighborhood assemblies in different geographical contexts: the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain), Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (Chile), and Whitechapel Gallery (UK). Drawing on political theory to analyze the horizontal, discursive, and performative features of these practices, the article examines their democratic potential and limitations. The argument is put forward that the neighborhood assembly functions as a practice of participatory cultural citizenship, whereby the art museum can enter a space of co-authorship of the local cultural environment with the local constituents and can be a participant among many.

Analysis of the user experience (On site vs. Virtual Reality) through biological markers and cognitive tests in museums: the case of Museo Cristo de la Sangre (Murcia, Spain)

Digital technologies have changed almost every aspect of our lives, including the way we access heritage. Following the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the technological evolution of recent years, museums and institutions, among others, have changed the way they display their collections, taking a greater interest in new technologies, platforms and digital software. This technological boom finds its greatest transformation with the implementation of Virtual Reality (VR) and Metaverse in the museum sector. This article shows the concrete influence of VR/Metaverse in a museum room previously digitised through different techniques. Subsequently, the impact over user experience in the VR scenario versus on-site visit has been measured. In parallel, to measure the enzyme alpha-amylase in saliva, a cognitive test and usability test (SUS) were carried out to determine the learning capacity and degree of satisfaction obtained with experience alongside the room of the Museo de la Sangre in Murcia (Spain).

New Contributions Regarding the Barniz de Pasto Collection at the Museo de América, Madrid

This article describes the objects in the barniz de Pasto collection at the Museo de América, Madrid. The barniz de Pasto technique will be described, as well as the historical documentary sources that have previously discussed this varnish. The article will also mention the historical reasons why Spain is the European country in which the greatest number of objects decorated with varnish have been found, in both religious and private collections. The main body of the article discusses all the barniz de Pasto objects held in the Museum collection, focuses on the history of their arrival at the Museum, and investigates their possible origin, with the help of ample photographs. The final section examines the Museum’s three most recent acquisitions, completed in the second half of 2022, in detail.

Cadaverous Rhetorics and Affective Regulation at the Anatomical Museum

ABSTRACT This article explores cadaverous rhetorics with a focus on public displays of human remains at anatomical museums. The article has two primary components: First, it advances a theory of cadaverous rhetoric grounded in a blending of rhetorical, feminist, and psychological affect theory. The article argues that combining Casey Boyle’s transductive rhetoric with Sara Ahmed’s cultural politics of emotion and the psychology of extensive affective regulation offers a great deal of insight into the public display of human remains. Second, the article explores the cadaverous rhetorics at three museums: the Mütter Museum, Surgeon’s Hall, and the Museo de la Medicina. The article traces how the practices of acquisition, preparation, preservation, display and contextualization aim to blunt negative affective responses and to catalyze positive visitor experiences. The article closes with a rumination on the limited success of cadaverous rhetorics in the face of visitor tendencies anchored in attachments to justice-oriented frameworks.

Reimagining science communication in the age of AI

This review analyses the presentation of “Campus Gutenberg Museo de la Ciencia CosmoCaixa 2023” held in September 2023 in Barcelona and reflects on the connection of the event with the necessary redefinition of the social communication of science in the face of the impact of artificial intelligence.

Archivos, colonos y fronteras en el Territorio del Chubut. Fotografías del Fondo Documental Juan Moreteau (circa 1895-1910)

Juan Moreteau (1870-1951) was a French engineer who settled in Argentina in 1895. At that time, he joined the Topographic and Geological Section of the Museo de la Plata, directed by Francisco P. Moreno and was appointed as a technician of the Argentina Border Commission with Chile. In 1903 he settled in Trelew (Chubut-Argentina) from where he carried out explorations and tasksrelated to his profession. The photographs from the Juan Moreteau Documentary Archive Fond, recovered by the Patagonian Institute of Social and Human Sciences (IPSH-Conicet), allow us to analyze the point of view about his own figure as an explorer, that of his co-workers, his neighbors, about the interethnic relationships and the representations of Patagonian nature in this context. The problems of the archives in Argentina have caused a certain dispersion of the documentary fonds, therefore, the enhancement of Moreteau’s materials opens a new window to a key moment in the expansion of the central state in Patagonia.

Le musée, l’artiste et l’identité comme marques : le cas du musée d’art latino-américain de Buenos Aires (MALBA)

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) illustrates what Robert Fleck (2014) calls the "21st Century Museum": a new type of museum built on branding. This concept is aligned with the debates that, since the 1980s, have proposed the end of the museum as an elitist place for the conservation of the canon, to make way for a museum institution conceived as a mass medium that adheres to the logic of the spectacle, as Andreas Huyssen (1994) postulates. The author describes the phenomenon of musealisation, which is evident in the increasing number of museum openings and the public’s growing interest in the museum experience. This article studies the MALBA as a paradigmatic case in which two conceptual categories coexist: a 21st-century museum conceived as a mass media. From its exhibition proposals to its communication strategies, the museum appropriates the logic of the spectacle, constituting a "star system" of Latin American art, variable according to marketing objectives. We are interested in how the institution constructs itself as a brand, and in the discursive mechanisms through which certain Latin American artists and ideas of "Latin Americanness" serve institutional positioning. We also observe how MALBA adopts some of the positioning strategies of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This article therefore presents a) a study of the institutional communication strategies of the two museums; b) an analysis of four curatorial discourses of the museum’s collection (from 2010 to 2022) in order to observe the different ways in which MALBA presents Latin American art history and Latin Americanness; and c) an analysis of the construction of the MALBA brand based on the artists that make up its collection.

Ectoparasites (Diptera: Streblidae and Nycteribiidae) of bats from some localities of the Coast of Ecuador

In Ecuador, studies of parasitic bat flies are scarce and biased towards the family Streblidae: reports indicate the existence of 50 species, five of them on the western lowlands. In this study, in addition to Streblidae, we include information of the family Nycteribiidae that has not been studied in Ecuador. Both families are associated with bats in several localities of the western lowlands of the country. We used samples from the associated collection of parasites of the Mammalogy Section of the Museo de Zoología at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (QCAZ-M), as well as the database of the collection that allowed obtaining information on the host taxa. Thus, 145 individuals of bats of 22 species of the families Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae and 424 individuals of 29 species of parasitic flies are reported. Of these, five species are new in Ecuador, 19 are confirmed records in the west and the geographic distribution was extended for species previously reported in this region. Trichobius joblingi was the most abundant parasitic fly species and together with Speiseria ambigua were associated with the greatest number of bat species. Species of the genus Carollia were the most abundant and harbored the greatest diversity of flies. The study constitutes the first extensive review of Diptera (Streblidae and Nycteribiidae) in the area and, therefore, contributes to expanding the knowledge of the diversity of ectoparasites of bats in Ecuador.

Problems of attribution of plate armor from the collection of the Alava Museum of Arms, Spain (on the question of scaly shells in the west of the medieval Ecumene, X–XIII centuries)

In the article the scale armour from Museode Armeríade Álava collection is explored. Among the specialists it is considered to be the earliest Medieval European scale armour of 10-13 centuries. After the comparison of the scale armor fragments in Europe, on the Balkans (the fragments there belong to Byzantine armory circle) and Middle East the author puts into question its background and dating. To wide the search circle the explorer pays attention on two ceremonial armour sets. One from Museode lEjército of Toledo and the second from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The breast plates of both sets have the same construction and decoration to the breast plate from Museo de Armeríade Álava. At the same time the set from Museo del Ejército of Toledo attribution that is given at the official museum site as the armour of Mexican Indian chief of the Conquest period is considered to be absolutely incorrect by the author of the article. Because iron as the material for local metallurgical industry of the period was simple unknown and unavailable for metalwork. The attribution of the second set from The Metropolitan Museum of Art that is given at the official museum site seams much more probable. The American specialists attribute it as Chinese and date 18tht c. Based on it the author comes to the conclusion that the breast plate from Museo de Armería de Álava has nothing to European Medieval period and can be attributed as Chinese ceremonial armour set of 18th c.

Fauna diversity in Madracis spp. coral patches in the Colombian Caribbean

Madracis spp. coral patches are the main deep–sea framework builder observed on the shelf–break scarp of the Colombian Caribbean, between 107 and 230 m depth. The Marine Protected Area, Corales de Profundidad National Natural Park, was established in 2013 to protect a site of high biodiversity associated with Madracis communities. Our research summarizes the advances in knowledge of its biodiversity as the result of four expeditions and offers insights into the state of its associated fauna. Madracis colonies occur in five areas of the park but corals thrive and build coral patches in only two of the five, both in the southwest area. Our surveys have resulted in the inventory of 337 species. Mollusca (116) dominated the fauna, followed by Bryozoa (70), Cnidaria (50), Echinodermata (39), Arthropoda (14), Annelida (13), Brachiopoda (3), and Chordata (32 fishes). Store voucher specimens at the Museo de Historia Natural Marina de Colombia–Makuriwa and metadata are available online in the SiBM database. Checklist published through GBIF (DOI: 10.15470/vqshir)

Checklist of the subfamily Scolytinae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Tucumán province, Argentina

A checklist of Scolytinae species is presented to contribute to the knowledge of the biodiversity of the subfamily in Tucumán province, Argentina. The inventory was based on collections in the field from 2016 to 2023, and a review of the material deposited in the entomological collections of the Museo de La Plata, the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, and the Fundación Miguel Lillo. Previous bibliographic records were also included. In total, 54 species belonging to 11 tribes were recorded, of which six were new reports for Argentina and nine for Tucumán province; eight species were introduced. The genus Amasa was also recorded in Argentina for the first time.

From fossil trader to paleontologist: on Swiss-born naturalist Santiago Roth and his scientific contributions

Roth’s explorations, the resulting collections many now allocated in La Plata, Zurich, Geneva and Copenhagen, and his significant contributions in geological—especially stratigraphic—and paleontological topics, are a paradigmatic case for the global history of paleontology and for the Swiss migration history in Latin America. His work included the discovery of a diverse megafauna from the Pampean region, of sites and strata in Patagonia of paleontological significance, and the recognition of a group of endemic ungulate mammals, Notoungulata. Roth’s discovery of a human skeleton associated with a glyptodont carapace is one of the first reports of the coexistence of humans with the extinct fauna of the South American Quaternary. Roth became a renowned scholar at the Museo de La Plata, which was a leading scientific institution in the nation-making of Argentina, particularly in the expansion of the Patagonian frontier. He also kept strong ties with his native Switzerland, where late in his adult life he obtained some formal training and tried to attract other Swiss nationals to work in natural sciences in Argentina. His biography sheds light about the circumstances of his scientific collection and career in the interstices between amateur and professional science, modernity and imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century.

Diagnosis of the conservation status in archaeological objects from Museo de la Patagonia by using imaging complementary techniques

We present the application of imaging complementary techniques to the interdisciplinary study of a selection of archaeological metal objects belonging to funerary assets from Patagonean Indigenous. This selection belongs to the archaeological collection “Andres Giai” which is under the care of the Museum of Patagonia, Bariloche, Argentina. It was regrettably left with no contextual data and most of the objects were kept in uncontrolled storage conditions over many years. Its general conservation status motivated the design and implementation of an interdisciplinary methodology to address a Conservation Plan considering the application of analytical techniques for materials in its approach. This work intends to achieve the first stage on this Plan, which consists in a suitable diagnosis of the conservation-status to specific and representative pieces of the Andrés Giai metal collection. We highlight the Diagnosis stage as the most important to determine accurate treatments for each object during any conservation plan. The diagnosis was carried out by implementing neutron and X-Ray tomography at the Helmholtz Zenturm Berlin, Germany. The results obtained allowed us to: study the distribution of corrosion products and other degradation products such as crusts; verify the presence of a metal core under these product, study the homogeneity of the thicknesses, and show characteristics of the internal surfaces. This information is vital for the proposal of tailored conservation treatments that allow guaranteeing sustainable interventions.

Embodied Contradictions and Post-Industrial Built Environments

In October of 2004, the Museo de Medicina Laboral (Museum of Labor Medicine), opened to the public in Real del Monte, State of Hidalgo, Mexico. The museum, located on the grounds of what had been the Hospital Minero (Mining Hospital), was a building complex conceived, built, and operationalized at the height of Mexico’s Industrial Revolution and the region’s only medical facility specializing in the healthcare needs of miners and their families. Utilizing historical analysis, the hospital reveals contradictions frequently embodied by the era’s Modernist built environments. Inaugurated in 1907, the hospital was the culmination of the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company (USSRMC) and its Mexican subsidiary, Compañía Real del Monte y Pachuca’s (CRMyP) efforts to bring healthcare to its employees while maximizing production. On one hand, the hospital’s design and operation expressed an optimism wrought by the dissemination of positivist and utilitarian philosophies and economic growth spurred by technological innovation; on the other, growing wealth inequality and deteriorating, often brutal, labor conditions. Nearly 120 years later, the hospital again embodies a global reality. In contemporary post-industrialist economies, once these built environments cease being productive, they are usually abandoned or demolished; only a few are transformed and repositioned for other uses. As the region’s mining industry ceased productivity, the hospital was first abandoned and later rescued by a newly privatized enterprise that donated the medical building complex to a non-for-profit civil association focused on mining heritage. Now the Museum, an architectural expression that fused global and local economic, technological, and aesthetic sensibilities, has become an example of commodified didactic heritage.

The Amphibulimidae pulmonate forest snails deposited in the Malacological Collection of the “Museo de Biología de la Universidad Central de Venezuela – UCV”

Introduction: Since 2014, the “AM Project” (Brazil) has been conducting taxonomic, bioecological and conservationist research on molluscs present in the Caribbean continental territory of Venezuela, with special emphasis on its land (terrestrial and arboreal) forest species (Agudo-Padrón 2021, Agudo-Padrón & Vera-Caripe 2022). Up to date, these aspects of the natural history of this geographic region have/ had been poorly studied. Objective: Substantial update of this knowledge through the unprecedented curatorial review of the collection of molluscs deposited in the malacological collection of the “Museo de Biología de la Universidad Central de Venezuela – UCV”, based in city of Caracas. Methodology: Between October 2022 and February 2023, a taxonomic review and examination of material from forest snails of the family Amphibulimidae deposited in the mollusc internal collection of the Museum was performed. Results and conclusions: Determination of fourteen (14) species, collected/ found in 16 geopolitical entities of the country, which were taxonomically grouped into one (1) family and two (2) genera.