-
Humanities and the arts
- Theory and methodology of philosophy
- Philosophy
- Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified
The main objective is to study a museum sub-collection [Royal Museum for Central Africa, region: north-east Congo] by
looking at it from different disciplinary angles. In order to explore the objects to their fullest extent as sources, we connect
them with other resources of information such as archives and other collections, but most importantly we re-connect them
with the populations they originated from and their history. Our study combines the disciplines of art history, history,
anthropology, critical museology, comparative linguistics and visual anthropology with the practical fields of performance and
visual arts and museum education.
The dominant research area resorts under historical anthropology, crossing the bridge between history and anthropology.
Several of its sub-disciplines are combined in an integrative way the historical study of anthropology as a discipline (in relation
to the museum as a scientific institution and its collecting, research and exhibition practices); the domain of ethno-history (the
study of Congolese societies and their socio-cultural institutions to which museum collections testify) including a contribution
from comparative linguistics; material cultures studies exploring museum collections from different disciplinary angles.
Furthermore, the medium of documentary film is used for ethnographic research, covering the domains of critical arts and
visual anthropology, re-establishing connections between the material heritage in Belgian collections and Congolese
recollections of its history. Finally, our research results are used to develop a practical tool -a game- for promoting intercultural
understanding in museum edL:Jcation, based on learning from objects.