Museums as a place to produce evidence:

Le musée comme lieu d’administration de la preuve.

Sophie A. de Beaune (1, 2)

1 Archéologies environnementales
2 UJML3 LC - Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 - Faculté des Lettres et civilisations

Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900) and Édouard Piette (1827-1906) both donated their collections to a museum, submitting their donations to the same strict conditions, in particular concerning the presentation of the objects. They did so because, in both cases, they considered their collections as demonstration tools for their scientific theories. Based on an analysis of the shapes of the objects in his ethnographic collection, Pitt-Rivers proposed a real philosophy of progress: the mental calculations and the shapes that resulted follow the same laws of evolution as those of living organisms. The main goal of geologist and pre-historian Édouard Piette was to establish a chronological synthesis of prehistory based on the juxtaposition of industrial assemblies. We examine these theories, the way the museum displays were conceived and what remains today.

Mots clés: Édouard Piette; Pitt-Rivers museum; Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers; Musée d'Archéologie Nationale; Museology; Museography

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Histoire

Sophie A. de Beaune. Le musée comme lieu d’administration de la preuve. : Genèse et destin de deux collections du XIXe siècle. Gradhiva : revue d'histoire et d'archives de l'anthropologie , 2013, 18, p. 166-199. ⟨halshs-02063101⟩