This article discusses the construction of Qatari heritage in the context of pre-conceived ideas of 'cultural heritage' predominant in the global and regional spheres that operate in this country. It considers the location of Qatar within Middle Eastern heritage discourses and debates, and identifies productive similarities as well as unique avenues for further discussion. The authors identify the challenge of formulating methodologies that are able to recognize, accommodate, encompass and reflect local heritage dialogues and practices that exist in Qatar, which may aid in further researching the wider Arabian Peninsula, its histories and heritages.
The collecting processes in Qatar at state level is intimately linked with the construction of a new Qatari identity for global consumption and national cohesion. At an individual level, collecting can be linked with the desire to preserve the disappearing present in the face of rapid development, as well as representing local traditions of authority and erudition. The national collections created for the first Qatar National Museum institutionalize this process and re-classify the objects as representing the newly constructed 'Qatari' identity. The Msheireb Arts Center holds the Echo Memory collection of found objects, collected to inspire a Qatari future but representing the lives of the South Asian community otherwise excluded from the Qatari national discourse. Using these examples, this paper situates the processes of collection, curation and display within, or in opposition to, the ongoing process of Qatari national identity construction, preservation and dissemination, and presents them as a facet of Qatar's engagement with modernity and the reimagining of itself in the contemporary global age.
From 2006 to 2009, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, UK, was one of the leading institutions promoting the debate surrounding the ethics of preserving and displaying the dead in museums. The discussion in this chapter analyses the activities of Manchester Museum in relation to human remains within the context of a critical assessment of recent developments in museum practice and the continuing cultural significance of the museum. In particular, the discussion will pay particular attention to the omission of any acknowledgement of the individuals responsible for exhibitions and related events, i.e. the authors of its public discourse. Two case studies will be used to illustrate the discussion: the exhibition, Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery (2008–9), and the incident of the ‘covering the mummies’ in April 2008 where three of the twelve Egyptian embalmed bodies on display were fully covered, resulting in a public outcry (Jenkins 2011a; Exell 2013a). Both the exhibition and the ‘covering the mummies’ formed part of a series of high-profile activities related to human remains that took place at Manchester Museum at this time. At the time, I was in post as Curator of Egyptology, and this discussion also illustrates the changing role of subject-specialist curators in relation to exhibition production and other aspects of a museum’s public communications (see Farrar 2004). … ‘There are, as far as we know, no a priori reasons for supposing that scientists’ scientific practice is any more rational than that of outsiders.’ (Latour and Woolgar 1986: 29) ‘Another word for “local knowledges” is prejudice.’ (Sokal 2008: 108)… Working on the public consultation process during the period 2008–10 for the new archaeology and ancient Egypt galleries at Manchester Museum, opened as the Ancient Worlds galleries in October 2012, the general lack of understanding of the exhibition and gallery development process amongst museum visitors became evident. From discussions with participants in the various consultation events (Exell and Lord 2008; Exell 2013a,b), it emerged that people in the institution either regarded the decision-making process as being the sole responsibility of the most relevant subject-specialist curator, or somehow the result of a monolithic and neutral institutional mind (Arnold 1998: 191).
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