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 cent...
| Published in: | Handling religious things |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Georg Olms Verlag
2022
|
| In: |
Handling religious things
Year: 2022, Pages: 183-200 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| 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. |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | 3487160773 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Handling religious things
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17192/es2022.0093 |