Contribution short abstract:

The paper argues that as political regimes changed in the 20th century, the representation of 'knowledge of people' was theoretically interpreted nationally and internationally. The methodology of this research is discourse and data analysis.

Contribution long abstract:

Jonas Basanavičius, an Actyvist early ethnographer and proponent of Lithuanian national revival, like the German historian August Ludwig Schlöser before him, associated the term 'ethnography' not with historical periods but with 'knowledge of people'. This concept was the starting point for the establishment of one of the first ethnographic museums, the Museum of the Lithuanian Scientific Society, at the beginning of the 20th century. The ideas of the Enlightenment inspire the ethnographic museums of regional history in Lithuania as well as elsewhere in Europe. Ideas such as the movement to create museums of ethnography against the policy of the Russian Empire were also very important in Lithuania. People understood that the representation of culture and old ways of life showed their identity. This was the argument for connecting Lithuanian research with the representation of Lithuanian culture in the museum.

The paper argues that as political regimes changed in the 20th century, the representation of 'knowledge of people' was theoretically interpreted nationally and internationally. The methodology of this research is discourse and data analysis. We will focus on the question of how the theoretical dialogue between German and Lithuanian ethnologists on the ethnographic museum was conducted. We will discuss the theoretical approach to the political concept of "knowledge of the people". We will analyse what impact the early 20th century museum artefacts in Lithuania had on the concept of ethnographic museum in the late 20th century to compare with the concept of global museum.