Dynamics of Religious Objects in and outside Museums: How Material Culture of Islam is ‘Framed’ in Japan
Representation of Islam in museums in non-Muslim majority countries has become a subject of much debate in recent years. As pointed out by Virginie Rey, museums in the West are experiencing the third major phase of restructuring their Islamic collection displays. The first phase was in the 19th c...
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Published in: | Handling Religious Things. The Material and the Social in Museums (Band 13) |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Book Chapter |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Philipps-Universität Marburg
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | PDF Full Text |
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Summary: | Representation of Islam in museums in non-Muslim majority countries has become
a subject of much debate in recent years. As pointed out by Virginie Rey,
museums in the West are experiencing the third major phase of restructuring
their Islamic collection displays. The first phase was in the 19th century, when
artefacts were collected in the context of European imperial expansion into the
Muslim world, and displayed in world fairs and archaeological, ethnological, or
decorative art museums under the colonial gaze. The second major phase came
in the 1960s and 1970s, when revisionist attempts were made to decolonise
knowledge of Islamic heritage. Finally, in the last two decades, we have seen the
third rinascimento, or growth, in Islamic-related initiatives in museums and renewal
of exhibition space dedicated to Islam. Museums have taken up the agenda
of defusing the rising tension between Islamophobia on the one hand and radicalisation
of Muslim extremists on the other, by serving as a place of learning,
and as a forum for intercultural, interreligious dialogue. Muslim communities
themselves have also started to play an increasingly active role in creating these
new spaces: as curators, donors, source community informants, or participants in
dialogue events. Accordingly, there has been a recent boost in scholarly output
related to Islam in the fields of museology, material culture studies, and heritage
studies. However, most of the existing scholarship focuses on museums and outreach
projects in Western Europe and North America, where the Muslim migrant population is relatively high. This paper offers a Far Eastern perspective on the
subject by presenting a case study from the National Museum of Ethnology in
Osaka, Japan. |
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Physical Description: | 18 Pages |
DOI: | 10.17192/es2022.0093 |