The reflections on the Agency of objects in the conformation of the collections. The Institute of Archeology and Museum (IAM, UNT) as an approximation case.

Abstract

Currently it is considered that the historical and archaeological heritage constitutes, not only an inheritance from the past, but also a constitutive part of the identities of the present, of groups whose socio-historical trajectory is very diverse. These processes have led to diverse evaluations, which attribute to objects a historical, cultural, ritual, emotional load -among others- an aspect that does not exclude scientific practices. Therefore, the strategies for its enhancement aim to guarantee its protection and management from a multidimensional approach, which takes into account this rich variability.

In reference to the safeguarding of heritage assets, there are those collections that come from more than a century of acquisition practices, such as the collection of the Institute of Archeology and Museum, Faculty of Natural Sciences, and IML, of the National University of Tucumán (hereinafter IAM). Taking as a starting point some aspects related to the historical trajectory of this collection, and to published information on this subject, we propose to carry out a series of reflections on the role of objects around the processes of acquisition of collectibles.

In relation to this, we incorporate the concept of agency from a relational perspective that admits multiple modalities and changes over time. This approach aims to get away from the classic dichotomies between subjects and objects, so we propose an active role for the latter in the practices that involved their selection, collection and acquisition.