The sacred in museums, the museology of the sacred — the spirituality of indigenous people

Abstract

Different biases can be adopted to discuss the sacred in museums. This article is about the spirituality of indigenous people and how it affects work at museums, particularly curatorship. The arguments put forth here are grounded in collaborative initiatives and in the discourse and knowledge of indigenous people in Brazil. We claim that museums are sacred places because the objects of indigenous people are sacred, and the sacred is part of the lives of indigenous people. The musealized objects of indigenous peoples carry with them the energies of those peoples’ ancestors, and evoke instances of communication with the spirits. It is a view that places the “enchanted” as museum curators, which requires new learning for new museum situations.