Material culture, domestic space and musealization

This paper attempts to demonstrate, through a concrete and still active practice, how a curatorship characterized by research may redefine collecting, documenting and exhibiting practices of the collections in historical museums. The case study is based on debates about material culture identifying the domestic environment as a fertile field for the embodiment of social and gender distinctions through objects. The close relationship between materiality and sociocultural categories marks museums as strategic institutions in promoting this kind of study.

gender studies; domestic space; museums