Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims to discuss the relation between ethnographic collections with three fields: histories of anthropology, indigenous peoples and museums.

Paper long abstract:

Inside an imaginary Venn diagram which shows the intersection between three sets, namely those of histories of anthropology, indigenous peoples and museums, ethnographic collections would be the central element. This means that it is not only possible to approach every single field startig by the analysis of collections, but also that those very field leads to the ethnographic collections. By taking in account that ethnographic collections manage to put in relation those three sets, meaningful insight about them are also capable of transforming the sets the collections are related to. Thus, by comparing the experiences of a collaborative curation held by colleagues at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP) with data collected by myself at the Museum Archive, this paper aims to discuss the relation of these three sets, by focusing the central role of ethnographic collections.