How do Museums Affect Sacredness? Three Suggested Models

Abstract

This paper discusses what happens when religion in the shape of objects imbued with religious meaning is transformed into cultural heritage, suggesting three models to discuss its consequences for museums. The first model builds on the museum as a killing of previous identities, and the objects as provided with new identities as museum objects. A second model is the hybrid identity, where a museum object can possess several identities simultaneously, depending on the eyes of the beholder: sacredness, art object, or evidence of history. The third model is defined by the uses of objects. Distinguishing between cultual use and cultural use is crucial here. I argue that these different approaches to sacred objects in museum pose different museological challenges and possibilities, and also ascribes different agencies to museum staff as well as to the visitors.