After a long month of December with candles, presents, carols and plenty of traditional food, we have passed Christmas and New Year’s Eve. In many places around the world, New Year’s Eve marks the end of one year and the beginning of a new and […]
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Meet the curator: Mikael Gravers
In the Ethnographic Collections at Moesgaard Museum, we have a big collection of artefacts and photographs from Thailand: EA212. It was curated by Associate Professor Emeritus at Aarhus University, Mikael Gravers, during an ethnographic fieldwork that took place from October 1970 to July 1972 in […]
Chasing the Csodaszarvas
When I came across this beautiful ceramic decoration in the museum‘s Ethnographic Collections, I mistakenly thought it was a Christmas decoration – something that would help me write a relevant contribution to the blog seeing as Christmas is very much upon us. A seemingly flying reindeer […]
A shoe update
In the beginning of September, the above shoe was the main character of quite a mystery. The shoe had been found by anthropologist Mette Bovin in the desert where she was conducting fieldwork among the nomadic Wodaabe people. The string at the back of the […]
Putting the shoe on the other foot – or putting experience before beauty
Moesgaard Museum’s ethnographic collections boasts a great number of fantastical footwear from all over the world! Many of these beautiful shoes have been featured in great numbers on ethnographica, and soon even more – more than 230 different pairs of shoes to be exact – […]
For you to adore
It would not be an odd thought that decorating the body, crafting jewellery and, more generally, spending time on beauty was a sign of abundance of ressources in a community. However, decorations and handicrafts are seldom only a cherry on the top but most often […]
All my bags are packed
At the museum, we are looking forward to the summer season. Guests from all over the world will visit us and our beautiful city, and we are more than ready to welcome them! Hopefully they will save a little space in their bags for nice […]
In the aftermath of a superstar
I have this fantasy. It might seem a little odd, but it goes like this: I have made friends with someone who used to be famous and popular. Someone, who has stepped out of the spotlight. Perhaps because of age. Yes, he or she has […]
The familiar strange and the strange familiar: Warding off all evils with the help of a CD
Scrolling through the ethnographic collections allows you to enter into a whole world of objects – from ant-belts, spirit houses, machetes, masks to musical instruments, dolls, camel saddles and even more. But among the more ‘fantastical’ objects in the collections are also some seemingly ordinary. […]
Poo-poo, Pee-pee and… Reindeer Lichen! Fighting Environmental Threats with Ethnographica
Ethnographic objects inspiring state-of-the-art green innovation? Indeed! Inspired by objects from our Sibirian collections, Moesgaard Museum launches an innovative and sustainable solution to an immense challenge for the planet, namely the excessive use of disposable diapers. Over the recent 30 years, disposable diapers have become […]
Christmas Special: The Fourth Magus
Most of us know the basics of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ: Mary and Joseph on their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the overcrowded inns, the stable, baby Jesus in his manger, the three wise men, or Magi, bearing gifts of gold, […]
Headdress – Pakistan
In line with the aesthetic variety as offered by Tuxen’s shoe collection, headwear comes in a myriad of cross-cultural shapes, sizes, and colours! And although it might not reveal itself as such at first sight, this garment is actually meant to be worn atop the head – more specifically a Pakistani […]
