How the Musée Royale De Batoufam Preserves Tradition and Culture for Multiple Audiences and Perspectives Julia Hirsch SIT Study Abroad
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SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2019 Couvrant les Yeux, les Oreilles et la Bouche: How the Musée Royale de Batoufam Preserves Tradition and Culture for Multiple Audiences and Perspectives Julia Hirsch SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons, African Studies Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Hirsch, Julia, "Couvrant les Yeux, les Oreilles et la Bouche: How the Musée Royale de Batoufam Preserves Tradition and Culture for Multiple Audiences and Perspectives" (2019). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 3011. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3011 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Couvrant les Yeux, les Oreilles et la Bouche: How the Musée Royale de Batoufam Preserves Tradition and Culture for Multiple Audiences and Perspectives Julia Hirsch Christiane Magnido, Academic Director Donita Nshani, Academic Advisor Batoufam, Cameroon SIT Study Abroad: Development and Social Change Spring 2019 Macalester College French, Anthropology & African Studies Key Words: Museum, Site Museum, Tradition, Modernization, Modernity, Preservation, Oral History, Written History, Visual History Table of Contents 1. Abstract (English & French)................................................................................................3 2. Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..4 3. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..5 a. Main Research Question…………………………………………………………..5 b. Sub Research Questions…………………………………………………………...6 c. Main Research Hypothesis………………………………………………………..6 d. Sub Research Hypotheses………………………………………………………....6 e. Definitions of Key Terms………………………………………………………….7 f. Background on Museums and Bamiléké Culture…………………………………9 4. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………..…11 a. Field Procedures………………………………………………………………….12 b. Target Population and Sample Size……………………………………………...12 c. Interviews………………………………………………………………………...13 d. Observations……………………………………………………………………..14 e. Data Management, Analysis, and Interpretation………………………………....15 f. Ethical Considerations…………………………………………………………...16 g. Strengths and Limitations of the Study…………………………………………..17 5. Data Presentation & Analysis……………………………………………………………18 a. The Musée Royale de Batoufam: A Unique Case Study………………………...18 b. Tradition and Modernity Coexisting in Musée Royale de Batoufam……………22 c. The Museum as a Modern Concept……………………………………………...25 d. Different Cultural Perspectives & Visitor Comprehensions……………………..27 e. Community Ways of Using the Chefferie and Learning Tradition………………31 f. Different Preservation Methods for Different Perspectives……………………...35 g. The Visitor-Community Rupture and How it Can Be Fixed…………………….41 6. Limitations to the Study and Suggestions for Future Research……………………….....44 7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….44 1 8. References………………………………………………………………………………..48 9. Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………....51 a. Pictures…………………………………………………………………………...51 b. Interview Guides…………………………………………………………………54 c. Observation Guides……………………………………………………………....60 d. Contacts of Important Resources……………………………………………...…61 2 Abstract English: Museums are important to study as a way of representing, preserving, and teaching culture. In this study, I wanted to explore how James Clifford’s exhibitionary complex, about the interactions of the viewer, the museum, and the represented culture, applies in the unique case of Musée Royale de Batoufam, a living site museum full of art and rich with tradition. In studying this, I examined the way different audiences use the museum and how the museum can preserve the idea of the coexistence of modernity and tradition, which is integral to Batoufam life, for all audiences. In conducting 20 interviews with actors from all three perspectives and 17 observations, I found that while currently Batoufam people preserve tradition orally and foreigners learn it through written form, the best preservation method is symbolic art in the museum which bridges the two forms of preservation and the two groups of people in the museum. Français: Les musées sont importants d’étudier comme une façon de représenter, préserver, et enseigner la culture. Dans cette étude, j’ai voulu d’explorer comment Le Complex d’Exhibition de James Clifford, à propos des interactions du voyeur, le musée, et la culture représentée, applique dans le cas unique du Musée Royale de Batoufam, une musée vivant de site avec beaucoup d’art et riche avec la tradition. En étudiant ça, j’ai examiné comment les audiences différentes utilisent le musée et comment le musée peut préserver l’idée de la coéxistance de la tradition et de la modernité, qui est essentiel pour la vie de Batoufam, pour toutes les audiences. En faisant 20 entretiens et 17 observations, j’ai trouvé que malgré que les Batoufams actuellement préservent leurs traditions orallement et les étrangers les apprennent à travers l’écriture, la meilleure méthode de la préservation est l’art symbolique dans le musée, qui rejoint les deux types de la préservation et les deux groupes dans le musée. 3 Acknowledgements To Donita, for guiding me through the process of writing this paper, for meeting with me to talk through my ideas, for being a strong, inspiring female anthropologist, and for making the process so enjoyable. To Christiane, Nathalie, Murielle, Serge, and Joel, for all of their support, both academically and emotionally, throughout the program. Without this caring team, I don’t know how I could have thrived as I did this semester. To my coworkers at the museum and other informants, for taking the time to contribute their thoughts to my project, no matter their relation to or expertise regarding the museum and chefferie. To the people of Batoufam in general, for welcoming me, teaching me their local language along my walks, and for reaffirming the open attitude towards visitors I kept learning about in my interviews. To my friends, both at SIT and at Macalester, for listening to me endlessly brainstorm and panic about changing topics CONSTANTLY, but for always supporting me and telling me that my ideas sound cool and interesting. To my host family in Batoufam, for creating such a nurturing environment to come back to after every busy, tiring day in the field. If it weren’t for their love, kindness and hospitality, this paper would not be the same. To my parents, for letting me come to Cameroon in the first place and for teaching me about the importance of taking every possible opportunity to travel and learn about cultures other than my own. To the Macalester Anthropology and French Departments, without the classes I had taken previous to studying abroad, conducting and transcribing 20 ethnographic interviews all in French would have been impossible. And to all of the people and museums that have made me love art throughout my lifetime, thank you for inspiring the subject of and passion behind this paper! 4 Introduction Museums are important institutions to study in that they are teachers and active visual representations of culture. They display objects in a way that makes them culturally valuable and thus function as a way of materializing culture.1 Museums come in all kinds and as they are being further studied, the ideas of what defines a museum is constantly changing and expanding.2 Some museums intend on functioning more as a way of preserving a culture through valuable or sacred objects, while other museums are more intended to teach about more contemporary stories and phenomena. However, all museums, no matter their original goals and intents, display, preserve, represent and teach through the inherent definitions of the museum setting. The museum tells a story, or multiple, because of all the actors present in the museum. But because of all these actors involved, the story may not be told in the way it was originally intended. In an ideal situation, museums would be able to take traditional culturally significant objects and display them in a museum to preserve, represent and teach about that culture while maintaining that same traditionally important meaning and function. But by placing the object in a museum, the meaning of the object, how it appears, and how it is used in the learning experience of museum visitors changes. But how does this idea of the exhibitionary complex manifest differently at the Batoufam Chefferie in a museum created by Bamileke, for Bamileke, and representing Bamiléké, I am hoping to discover some differences in the interactions between the museum and its artifacts, the community whose culture is being represented, and outside visitors and tourists who are using this museum as a way of learning about Batoufam culture. Main Research Question 1 Bouquet, Mary. 2012. Museums: A Visual Anthropology. London & New York: Berg Publishers, 3. 2 Hudson, Kenneth (1999) “Attempts to Define ‘Museum,’” in David Boswell and Jessica Evans, eds., Representing the Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and Museums.