Documenting the Divine: The Future of Sacred Objects in Museum Databases

Abstract

Religiosity as a modicum of meaning surrounding and within objects has raised ethical issues ever since people began collecting, especially as some of the first works of art were commissioned by religious practitioners or for religious purposes. In the twenty-first century, as curators and collections specialists grapple with the religious and cultural trauma surrounding the looting and unethical collecting of objects with inherent spiritual and sacred value, this article explores the implications of this value and meaning in our museum databases. How do museums care for objects that are themselves non-human living beings, spirits, and/or ancestors and how do they care for objects whose legacies of creation, contact, and engagement affect the ways in which they can be displayed or preserved? This article utilizes a case study of Catholic relics to explore how collections specialists catalog their value, both historical and spiritual, and how it affects the ways in which they are touched, treated, and housed.