The object and the construction of meaning in ethnographic collections.

Abstract

The conditions for analysis of the material culture and the conceptual marks from which the objects can be read, acquire a singular character in the study of ethnographic collections. Starting from the presentation of methodologic-theoretic aspects related to the considered type of referent and to the enquiry procedures to which the «objects» are submitted by the researcher, we propose several levels of contextualization which make the passage from the material dimension to the symbolic one, which constitute the referential instances of attribution of meaning, to stand out. This process is exemplified in a set of masks which belong to the Ethnography Scientific Departament of the La Plata Museum.