The Commodification of Culture of Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York
Background of the Study
Commodification is a process in which something enters freely or is coerced into a relationship of exchange, a transaction enabled by an instrument of payment within a relatively short period of time (Ganahl). Commodification assumes that language is primarily a mode of verbal exchange and interaction, and the parties in this exchange identify themselves as owners. Commodification transforms relationships formerly untainted by commerce, into commercial relationships, relationships of buying and selling. “Commodification” is a term that only came into currency in 1977, but expresses a concept fundamental to Marx’s understanding of the way capitalism develops. An example of commodification would be the commercialization of scientific and cultural activities through the increasing pressure conveyed through “funding mechanisms” to orient activity towards serving commercial rather than human interests. Or the professionalization of amateur sports and services, to a point when playing a “game” involves working out at 5 a.m., and your teenage neighbor needs a degree in early childhood development and a salary before she will be allowed to baby-sit.
Culture itself has become an endangered species of experience; it is under assault. An omnipresent economic apparatus has emerged that involves mass production and mass merchandising that actively intrudes upon the cultural process, it expropriates it, denatures it and destroys it. When a new piece of culture develops out of a real community it is instantly appropriated by our economy and turned into a commodity. It is a process of commodification in which the cultural process is turned into a product and the apparatus for exploitation has grown to be very sophisticated.
This phenomenon is apparently prevalent in museums. Museums are institutions where material accounts of culture and tradition are kept. With these establishments charging fees for viewing and conducting auctions, the commodification of culture is placed in process. In this manner, these chambers of culture embrace a corporate identity. Although corporate identity is widely recognized as an important management tool, there is little understanding of its application in arts organizations (McLean, Abstract). In an exploratory study of McLean about the corporate identity of museums, she concluded that not only do museums too narrowly conceive of the concept of corporate identity, but that the nature of museums within an arts context compounds the problems encountered when defining and building identity.
In this light, one must take note of the Frankfurt School’s ‘critical theory’ of the commodification of culture, which offers the assumption that commerce preys on creativity and renders it banal (Calcutt). But such singular emphasis on continuity misses what’s different about today. While the commodification of culture occurs as before (it is traceable all the way back to the marriage of art and the market, and the divorce of art from the church), today it is offset by the inverse process – the culturalization of commodities. It is not just that cultural production is an increasingly significant aspect of commodity production in general. More significantly, commodities in general are drafted into the system of symbols and signifying practices defined as culture. Entry is made by means of branding. Branding is the process through which commodities in general are invested with cultural connotations and meanings, which in turn means that branding expresses not the commodification of culture, but its opposite the culturalization of commodities.
The Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York City, has a presence of more than 11,000 objects of varied materials and types from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America, which is overseen by a single curatorial department (Introduction to Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas). Representing four millennia of greatly diverse cultural traditions, the department’s holdings range from ritual sculpture and monuments of wood and stone to gold and silver ornaments, masks, costumes, and other textiles. At one end of the department’s vast chronological range are archaeological American objects from 2000 B.C.E.; at the other are African and Pacific works from our own time. Strengths of the collection include decorative and ceremonial objects from the Court of Benin in Nigeria; sculpture from West and Central Africa; sculpture in wood from New Guinea and the island groups of Melanesia and Polynesia; and objects of gold, ceramic, and stone from the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico and Central and South America.
Methodology
In this study, the researcher intends to provide an investigation on the institution where remnants of cultures dwell, museums. It seeks to identify the level of commodification of African, Oceania and South American culture in the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts in New York. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. What is the level of significance, in its respective cultures, of the artifacts included in the African, Oceania, and the Americas collection? (a sampling)
2. How often does the museums African, Oceania, and the Americas’ section present itself for exhibition?
3. To what extent of the African, Oceania, and the Americas collection are being auctioned?
4. Is there a significant relationship between the level of cultural significance of the artifacts in the African, Oceania and the Americas collection and the commodification methods employed by the museum?
This study will use the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize interviews and observation in this study. The general population of this study will be the resident curators and other employees in the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts in addition to general gallery visitors. Their responses in the interview to be conducted by the researcher shall be the primary source of data. The secondary sources of data will come from published articles from social science journals, theses and related studies on culture and the effects of its commodification.
List of Sources
Bennett, Tony. The Birth Of The Museum :History, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge, 1995.
Kaplan, E.S. Museums And The Making Of “Ourselves”: The Role Of Objects In National Identity. London: Leicester University Press, 1994.
Kavagnah, Gaynor. The Museums Profession: Internal And External Relations. Leicester [Eng.]: Leicester University Press, 1991.
Walsh, Kevin. The Representation Of The Past :Museums And Heritage In The Post-Modern World. London: Routledge,1992.
Miles, Roger and Lauro Zavala. Towards The Museum Of The Future :New European Perspectives. London: Routledge, 1994.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Museum and their Visitors. London: Routledge, 1994.
Duncan, Carol. Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums. London: Routledge, 1995.
Wong, Kokkeong. Media And Culture In Singapore :A Theory Of Controlled Commodification. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2001.
Hallam, Elizabeth and Brian Street. Cultural Encounters: Representing Otherness. London: Routledge, 2000.
Ganal, Reiner. Free Markets: Language, Commodification, and Art. Public Culture. Volume 13, Number 1. Duke University Press. (Winter 2001).
McLean, Fiona. Corporate Identity in Museums: An Exploratory Study. Accessed March 04, 2003. <http://www.hec.ca/ijam/116.htm>
Calcutt, Andrew. Couontercultural Corporations. Spiked. June 27, 2001. Accessed March 04, 2003. <http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D154.htm>
The Metropolitan Museum of Art on New York. Introduction to Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Accessed March 04, 2003. <http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=5>
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment