Telling history: analysis of an experience among the Anishinabe

Abstract In this paper, I discuss, at first, the increasingly evident need to address museums as an anthropological research object. I encourage an analysis of museums that is capable of perceiving in them two types of procedures traditionally studied by anthropologists: classification and attribution of value. Museums are taken as constructed narratives about diverse realities. In the second part of the paper, I apply these ideas in the study of a particular case: the Ziibiwing Center, a cultural center built by Anishinabe Indians, in Mount Pleasant (Michigan, United States of America). The description and analysis of the permanent exhibition of this cultural center reveal a narrative in which historical time and mythical time are intertwined. The experience of the present is organized according to the past and directed towards the future.

摘要 本文首先论述了将博物馆作为人类学研究对象的必要性正日益凸显。本文倡导对博物馆开展分析，以从中辨识出人类学家传统上研究的两类运作流程：分类与价值赋予。博物馆可被视为针对多元现实所构建的叙事文本。在本文第二部分，笔者将上述思路应用于一则具体案例的研究：位于美国密歇根州芒特普莱森特市的齐比温中心（Ziibiwing Center），这是一座由阿尼什纳比印第安人（Anishinabe Indians）兴建的文化中心。通过对该文化中心常设展览的描述与分析可见，其叙事将历史时间与神话时间融为一体，当下的体验以过往为根基，并指向未来。