Les Musées des Autres, du Trocadéro au Musée de l'Homme

Abstract

Version n'intégrant pas les dernières corrections.International audienceThe Quai Branly Museum is devoted to “the non-Western arts and cultures.” The very definition of the museum is laid down in contrast to a point of reference that is characterized as Western, and contemporary. This museum is thus a classic museum of the Other – at the same time similar to and different from previous museums of the Other, in particular the Musée de l'Homme. Because it emphasizes the aesthetic dimension above others, the Musée du Quai Branly epitomizes the end of the ethnologists' monopoly on interpretation regarding objects and artifacts that belong to the Other. It also illustrates some paradoxes the ways France deals with her colonial past