The Ethnographic Collections at Moesgaard Museum contains many amazing and interesting things. We have a Peruvian mummy, beautiful swords, a rare Thai temple scroll, Gandao grave figures from Kalasha, Pakistan, ancestor figures from Papua New Guinea… the list is endless. However, we also have some […]
A strange protector: Stuffed lizard from Algeria
Who on earth is this little dude?!? With his stiff legs sticking out, he does not look too comfortable lying there, in our photographer’s studio, on his big, bloated belly, mouth wide open. In fact, he has travelled a long way to get here: all […]
Spring is here! Bird toy from Madagascar
It is that time of year again. Birds are singing in the morning, anemones and daffodils are shooting out of the ground, and the trees are covered in vivid green buds, just longing to burst. Spring is here! In Denmark, the winter is long, dark […]
Following the call: The Indian missionary collection
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 […]
A Museum Tale: Samurai Garbs
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 […]
Off with their heads, The Red Queen screamed!
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. […]
Mask, Brazil
In the archive of the Ethnographic Collections, Moesgaard Museum, there is a file called “Tourist in the 1960s”. There are no artefacts related to the file, but the files bears witness to an interest in tourism in the middle of the 20th century. Tourism as […]
Strange tourism: Fake shrunken head
The objects in our museum collections have often travelled far to get here. They have made their way to Denmark in the luggage of Arctic explorers, khaki clad adventurers, inquisitive anthropologists, devout missionaries, and curious tourists. But once in a while, they just show up […]
Nuts about love?
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 […]
Dressing up: The Pwevo mask
If you live in Denmark, and just happened to be at home yesterday, you might be surprised by groups of costumed children ringing your doorbell, singing songs and asking for money, and promising mischief if you do not comply. Yesterday, you see, was ‘Fastelavn’, the […]
Pointy things: The knives of The Ethnographic Collections
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 […]
Valentine’s Day Special: The Makonde figures
Tomorrow being Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d showcase some of our more… shall we say… sexy artefacts: the sometimes racy and endlessly fascinating Makonde art. Let us get a bit of background before we get to the saucy bits. The Makonde are an ethnic group […]
