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 […]
English playwright Arthur Wing Pinero said that ‘where there’s tea there’s hope’. In many societies, drinking tea is a social event; sometimes even a ritual; something to gather around, something that organises the day, a tradition, a cultural practice. And around the globe, tea is […]
A while ago, on a particularly unimaginative Monday, I was trying to come up with an idea for a blog post, at I came up with the idea of the ‘artefact lottery’: closing my eyes, scrolling through the database, and clicking on something random. Back […]
Most of our artefacts spend their days in the cold and the dark. They might be nestled in acid free tissue paper in a cardboard box, or they might lie on a compact shelf whiling the years away. A few lucky artefacts may see the […]
In April, Ole Winther, head of department in the Agency for Culture and Palaces, attended a meeting on the future for Danish museums in Malmø, Sweden. During the meeting he said: “We have many, many storage units in Denmark, that are filled with old junk […]
Someone, living in Kabul in the 1940s owned this little heart shaped box. I wonder what they kept in it. What secrets did the little metal heart keep safe? Maybe it belonged to a young woman, who kept her earrings and trinkets safe beneath its […]
What is this human need to decorate? Why can we not settle for the plain and practical? As soon as the early humans stuck their fingers in ash or ochre for the first time, and found out that it could be used to draw squiggly […]
This is one of my absolute favorites in the ethnographic photographic collections at Moesgaard Museum! Two men wandering in mountains. The scene has epic qualities. The two characters, the mountains half covered in mist. And the dog. Where did the dog come from? The two […]
When I went on my first big trip abroad (a three month group trip to New Zealand and Thailand – those were the days), I remember snickering at the backpackers, who brought a head torch. I mean, it looks somewhat silly, having that thing strapped […]
“What is old junk to you, can be another’s treasure.” Winnie-the-Pooh For children and adults alike, Winnie-the-Pooh is a rewarding acquaintance. I was reading a story to my sons the other day, where Winnie is about to trash an old honey jar, but ends up […]
Check out this beautiful Afghan chest! It was collected by botanist Lennart Edelberg in 1948 who participated in the third Central Asian expedition, in which a group of Danish scientists travelled to a number of different Central Asian countries to gather information on the nomadic […]
Would you have guessed what this is, if we hadn’t given it away in the title? Resembling a wallet more than an actual box, this 66-year old item was in fact used to kindle fires in mid-20th century Afghanistan. Appearing strikingly primitive with its iron plate, meant […]
ethnographica 