Metamuseology and InterMuseologies – the Kaingang people and their collections (São Paulo, Brazil)

Abstract

Based on the Metamuseology, this article explores the Kaingang collections gathered at the beginning of the 20th century during the colonization of the West of São Paulo. What determined the interpretation analyses made about these musealia items was the museality as part of the violent procedures applied to collect and gather collections of objects that witness a relationship full of conflict and the records loaded with past musealities that are included in the Museological Documentation. One element has key importance in the article, the participation of the Kaingang groups in the new contextualization and signification of the objects inherited from their ancestors and that they met at MAE-USP. To that end, we have chosen some museological objects and, resorting to InterMuseologies, we showed how musealization can be used to challenge the former musealities and to make new propositions while respecting the rights of indigenous people to musealization.