The Ethnographic Perspective

Folk Culture- Discovery and Invention

An ethnographic museum is a museum forcultural studies. It collects objects which have becomewitnesses to the past as a result of changes in the wayof life and in values. The meaning of this past and thecultural- historical images these objects are supposedto represent depend on point of view and are subjectto changing evaluations.

The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and FolkArt, established in 1895 and located in SchönbornGarden Palace since 1917, is concerned with objectsand their traditions. It displays them in a mannerwhich intends to point out their significance; it viewsthem in a way which seeks out the culture that standsbehind the objects. This way of observing handeddown objects is a means for detecting the influence ofeveryday life in the appeal of popular art.

The" ethnographic" view has changedfrequently since the culture of the people became atopic for writers and later a subject for investigation.This museum is itself part of a history of collecting andof ethnographic ideas, a history which is illustratedthrough the objects accumulated here over fourepochs.

Alpine Landscape

Wall decoration, miniature, on tree fungusUpper Austria, end of the 19th century