How Visitors Relate to the Egyptian and Te Papa Museums: the Other Roles of Traditional and Modern Museums
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Lincoln University Digital Thesis Copyright Statement The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: you will use the copy only for the purposes of research or private study you will recognise the author's right to be identified as the author of the thesis and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate you will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from the thesis. How Visitors Relate to The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums: The Other Roles of Traditional and Modern Museums A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University by Ahmed Abdel Fattah Lincoln University 2012 Abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Phiolosphy. Abstract How Visitors Relate to The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums: the Other Roles of Traditional and Modern Museums by Ahmed Abdel Fattah The roles of traditional and modern museums have been scrutinised theoretically in museum studies, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic disciplines, but there is a lack of empirical insights into their actual functioning from the visitor’s perspective. The claims to simplify and reduce the functions of traditional and modern museums to either educational experiences and preservations or fun learning experiences, attests to the fallacy in the field. In order to offer an empirical interrogation of the other roles of traditional and modern museums, we need to answer the questions of why people go to traditional and modern museums, and what experiences they take from the museums. Buried within the construct we call the museum visitor’s motive and experience lie answers to fundamental questions about the other roles of traditional and modern museums and the differences and similarities between each type of museum. By drawing on the results of qualitative research that examined the visitor’s motive and overall experience at two different museums, this thesis found that the nexus between the physical and personal contexts and the physical and social contexts reveals different roles of the museum to different visitor types. It is found that although The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums exist at different levels or scales, there are more similarities than differences between the functions of the two institutions from the perspective of visitors. The roles of each type of museum are much wider than educating the public, displaying original artefacts in locked glass cabinets, vying with shopping malls, and providing infotainment and leisure for families on a Sunday afternoon. Both museums are important ii sites for: learning; social interactions; remembering historical and personal events; connecting visitors with the familiar and reinforcing their pre-existing knowledge; and settings for aesthetic, recreational and restful experiences. In this regard, there is no apparent conflict between The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums in relation to different visitors. Behind the obvious similarities between the two museums lies glaring differences between international and domestic participants at each site. Accordingly, this research splits the visitors at each site into two groups: domestic and international. Keywords: Te Papa; Egyptian Museum; traditional; modern; visitor experiences; motivations; international visitors; domestic visitors. iii Acknowledgements Over the long course of completing this thesis, many people contributed to this research project in innumerable ways, and I am grateful to all of them. To my supervisors Dr. David Fisher and Dr. Joanna Fountain go my sincere thanks not only for their quiet leadership and faithful guidance, but for their encouragement, example, critical comments and friendships. Thank you for reading and editing drafts of my thesis numerous times, even at times before I heavily proofread them; it must have been hard, especially with my unique spellings of Pharaonic, Maori and Arabic terms. I would also like to thank the postdoctoral researcher Mr. Mohammed Abdel Naim from the faculty of Arts at Cairo University for his effort and for his willingness to review the interview transcripts in Arabic. I am grateful to all the museum staff and management at The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums who offered information and hospitality while I was conducting my fieldwork and gathering my data. Thank you all for your unconditional support and the easy access to the museums’ facilities and visitors. I am also very grateful to the 100+ visitors who so willingly and generously gave of their leisure time to reflect upon their motives and experiences at both sites. The Environment, Society, and Design Department offered me invaluable financial and administrative support, and in particular Douglas Broughton , Pat Quarles, and Michelle Collings helped me staying on top of bureaucratic matters and answering patiently all my queries. And thanks to all the staff at Teaching and Learning Services and in the university library, and in particular Brenda Lord and Sarah Tritt offered great support as did Craig Murray. Your post graduate courses, invaluable editing and proof-reading service, and information and endnote sessions were a huge help, and have taught me a number of good technical writing skills as well as library and computer skills which I will take away with me into my professional career. On a personal level, I have been blessed with the ‘best family and parents in the world’. I simply could not imagine life without them. To my dear wife, Emily. Thank you for the love, support, kindness and understanding you have given me during my PhD and always. Also, to my daughter, Karima, you have brought true happiness and joy to my life. Thank you for always being there with your beautiful smile and open arms. iv Finally, I am fortunately blessed with a very caring Egyptian family and I am grateful to my parents, sister, and my brother in law for their financial support, encouragement and unwavering belief that I would succeed in my study overseas, at Lincoln University in New Zealand. I dedicate my thesis to the memory of my mother, Karima, who, together with my beloved father, kept encouraging me to pursue a doctoral degree overseas. I hope you all discover the diverse/similar roles of The Egyptian and Te Papa Museums from the perspectives of the participants and also the distinctions/similarities between domestic and international visitors’ experiences and motives at both sites. v Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Context: What is a Traditional and Modern Museum? ..................................... 4 1.2 Traditional and Modern Museums: the Research Problem and Research Objectives ...... 6 1.2.1 Research objectives ............................................................................................... 8 1.3 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Explanation of Terms used in the Thesis .......................................................................... 9 1.5 Outline of the Thesis Structure and Content ................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 Evolution of Museums ......................................................................................... 12 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 What is a museum, and what should it be? From the traditional to the modern model ...................................................................................................... 12 2.1.2 The Changing nature of museums in the late twentieth century ......................... 15 2.1.3 Museums in Egypt ............................................................................................... 16 2.1.4 Museums in the Western world and the New Zealand experience ..................... 19 2.2 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 3 An Overview of the Case Study Sites.................................................................. 23 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 23 3.1.1 Background and context of the Egyptian Museum ............................................. 23 3.1.2 Historical background: the Egyptian Museum .................................................... 25 3.1.3 Economic and socio-cultural aspects of the Egyptian Museum .......................... 27 3.1.4 Overview of the administrative aspects