Europe at MEG
European unity is a relatively recent construction, resulting from historical events and political decisions. In the nineteenth century, folklorists and ethnologists began to study peasant societies and folk culture, which were then threatened by change and thought to be still close to a mythical idea of an original society. Museum collections sought to palliate the gradual loss of a sense of belonging to a territory and an identity, so the objects presented here are perceived as both artefacts and archives. Most were collected in rural alpine communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the spirit of the natural sciences.
Organised around the notions of responsibility and reciprocity, the European section mixes provenances and periods. The display of humble but skilfully made objects aims to show the diversity of this territory and the memory stored in its heritage.
Display cases
33. Welcoming and sharing
34. Welcoming and sharing
35. Welcoming and sharing
36. Living in society
37. Wheat growing and human life cycles
38. Wheat growing and human life cycles
39. The divine at hand
40. Leading, directing and governing
41. On the highways and byways
42. The balance of work
43. The balance of work
44. The balance of work
© 2015 Musée d'ethnographie, Genève
Ville de Genève, Département de la culture et du sport