This last month, the view from Moesgaard Museum has looked somewhat different than usual. The sweeping vista of green fields and tall trees has been interrupted by a stage in the shape of a massive Viking ship lying on its side, and a stand seating […]
She is beautiful. She is the ‘mother of liberation’. She is Green Tara. Tara is a Buddhist tantric meditation deity, and she takes many forms. One of the most widely known forms is the Green Tara, who is known as the Buddha of enlightened activity. […]
Homework. A concept disliked by youths all over the world. Probably also in the north-eastern part of Thailand, where this ‘school book’ is from. It was collected by the now former missionary, Peder Jørgensen, who has spent more than 25 years in Thailand. On a […]
Can we just talk about how awesome this cannon is? It is not that big – about 67 centimetres in length – but that is actually one of the great things about it. Because cannons are usually these gigantic beasts, but this one you can […]
Imagine taking your family and travelling halfway around the world, to a place, which is strange and wholly different from everything you know. Now imagine that it is 1874 and that place is Madras in India. What do you bring from home, to remind you […]
The readers will have to excuse the author for being even more of a nerd than usual. But in museum ethnography and some part of anthropology, the explanatory powers of objects are being explored these years. I just read a book a couple of weeks […]
Beheading has long been one of the most common ways of execution. In Europe in the Middle Ages, beheading was considered an honourable form of death. With the introduction of the guillotine during the French Revolution, beheading became the norm for commoners and nobility alike. […]
You know the feeling. The feeling of being young and in love. Life is golden sunshine and you want to embrace the whole world and all living creatures in it. Beauty pervades everything. You cannot think clearly – and you don’t care! All you think […]
Sometimes, it all just becomes very grown-up. You go to work, drive your car, pick up kids from kinder garden, school, or whatever party they went to on Friday night, you struggle to decide what to have for dinner. You pay your taxes, buy toilet […]
Sometimes, we just need that bit of extra protection. To ward off evil spirits, protect us from accidents and jealousy, and to shield us from harm when we throw ourselves into perilous situations… For thousands of years, we humans have carried amulets and sacred objects, […]
The shadows on the wall are dancing in the dim light coming from several candles. Despite the questionable rigidness, it moves effortlessly across the stage. For a moment its facial expression seems to change, and the shadow seems alive. Though the audience knows that the […]
Looking through the wide catalog of ethnographic museum artefacts, you find that Moesgaard Museum has a lot under the category “Kaftan”. “Kaftan” is an Arabic word for a long robe, often worn as a coat or overdress. Looking at the garment in the picture above, […]
