Musées publics et musées privés en Arabie saoudite : l’identification à la nation par l’exposition d’objets archéologiques et ethnographiques
In 2018, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comprises nearly seventy public museums of various types (national history, military history, archaeology, popular heritage, science) affiliated with the government, where entrance is often free of charge. There are also one hundred and fifty private museums run...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Arabian Humanities |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/arabianhumanities/3425 |
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| Summary: | In 2018, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comprises nearly seventy public museums of various types (national history, military history, archaeology, popular heritage, science) affiliated with the government, where entrance is often free of charge. There are also one hundred and fifty private museums run by citizen collectors, either from their own homes or on premises, rented or bought. These museums mostly display collections relating to Saudi national history (newspapers, royal portraits, coins) and popular heritage (tools, cooking utensils, jewellery, clothing items). Part of these various institutions are examined in this article, drawing from works which consider museums to be a cultural product of nationalism, endeavouring to embody local heritage and to bring about its collective appropriation. From this perspective, through the spaces created and how they operate, museums are evidence of a conscious decision to bring together material and intangible objects, communicated by means of the exhibition, and in order to help the adoption a common heritage. The article questions exhibitions displaying both antique and ethnographic exhibits in the “Museums of Archaeology and Popular Heritage” (matāḥif al-athār wa-l-turāth al-sha‘bī), designed to promote a sense of belonging within the Saudi nation. The modalities of this exhibition are compared with those of private museums (al-matāḥif al-khāṣṣa) in order to analyse how, in Saudi Arabia, the “public” or “private” nature of museums participates in the object-based appropriation of national history. |
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| ISSN: | 2308-6122 |