Introduction—object habits: Legacies of fieldwork and the museum

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of 'object habits' for diversifying the scope of museum histories. The term is shorthand referring to an area's customs relating to objects, taking into account factors that influence the types of things chosen, motivations for collecting, modes of acquisition, temporal variations in procurement, styles of engagements with artefacts or specimens, their treatment, documentation and representation, as well as attitudes to their presentation and reception. These customs emerge not only within the museum or out in the field, but significantly between the two, within the full agency of the world. The articles in this special issue explore the potential of 'object habits' in relation to the history of museums and collections across a selection of disciplines and a range of object types, including ancient artefacts, natural history specimens, archival documents, and photographic evidence.

‘Collective wisdom’ at the National Archaeological Museum in Portugal

“…It is during this stage that a heterogeneous network of individuals channels objects towards collections and museums and the exchanges that are undertaken and the different owners, negotiations and concessions that take place, may be identified. 14 In order to find the actors involved and understand how they operated, we positively need to establish and reflect on details which are sometimes found in 'object habits', 15 and in other sources used in the field of the history of disciplines, of institutions and characters shaped by a nationalist context. At the same time, understanding processes of knowledge construction requires a grasp of how the interests of the different players coincide and requires the levelling of the playing field, in the sense that the contribution of no group of actors should be regarded as being more or less important than that of any other.…”