The Dilemmas of Museification. Reflections on Two State Initiatives for Building Collective Memory in Colombia

Abstract

This article goes back to museification as a particular way of construction and legitimation of collective memory. Museification generally refers to political and cultural actions deployed by institutions and civil servants that are aimed at selecting and placing an "object"—whether cultural or natural, as well as individuals or communities— within lines of reasoning and speeches that "petrify" the historical and cultural meanings of these objects. In this paper, we understand museums as institutional places par excellence in which memorial state activities tend to converge. In particular, the article explores two cases in which the museification process can be clearly identified. First, the controversy surrounding the proposal of including the towel of the recognized guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, (Tirjofijo), in the collections of the National Museum of Colombia in early 2001.Secondly, the article explores the case of some indigenous communities located in the country's southern jungles, in which the state lines of reasoning of the territorial control seem to conceive indigenous people and their lands as analogous to "eco- museums". We try to argue how state initiatives on social memory are essentially a field of paradoxes and social struggles. To do this, we rely on a theoretical discussion about memory studies and their relation to specific categories of the museological theory.