Preservation of meaning
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Preservation of meaning in library, archival or museum collections involves understanding spiritual, ritual, or cultural perceptions of value for specific objects, and ensuring these values are maintained and respected. Meaning is something assigned to objects of cultural or spiritual significance based on interpretations and perceived values by user populations, a process known as social construction of an object. When moved to
memory institution A memory institution is an organization maintaining a repository of public knowledge, a generic term used about institutions such as libraries, archives, heritage (monuments & sites) institutions, aquaria and arboreta, and zoological and botanical ...
s such as libraries or museums, these objects of social construction require unique approaches to preservation and maintenance in order to remain relevant as representations of cultural or spiritual societies. In many memory institutions of the Western World, including libraries and museums, focus is often placed on the informational content and physical attributes, or artifactual value, of collected materials. Preservation policies are primarily concerned with the maintenance of these two things, either through reformatting to preserve textual information, or repairs and environmental controls to ensure continued existence of their physical structure. However, it is necessary to look beyond the physical and informational aspects of objects in order to ensure we are also preserving the integrity of the spiritual or cultural values which may be fundamental in defining the object. Concerns arise when actions taken to preserve the physical object may compromise the spiritual or cultural integrity of a given object. Artifacts, including books, throughout history and the present were created and utilized according to rules and taboos that may not be inherently understood in today's world of mass consumer goods and material culture. While not all books, documents, and artifacts have rituals or socially constructed beliefs associated with their continued existence, it is a relevant issue for many cultural and religious collections.


Examples


Religion

An extreme example of how efforts to physically preserve may compromise the socially constructed meaning of the object is the
Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
Shrines of Ise Jingu, in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. These shrines are of significant cultural and spiritual value to the Japanese people, but every twenty years since the time of Emperor Temmu in the 7th century C.E. the buildings are completely destroyed and rebuilt. The rebuilding process is based on descriptions in the Documents on the rituals of the Great Shrine of Ise which dates from 804 C.E. and ensures that the recreations are exact replicas of the shrines taken down. Physical preservation of these monuments would damage the spiritual and cultural integrity of the process and purpose behind the continuous rebuilding. Similarly, in the
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
faith, materials are considered to have a life, which must be allowed to progress and end naturally. Impermanence (anitya) in the Buddhist faith relates to the natural end of all things,
nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
, and acts of physical preservation would be contrary to this belief. Buddhist
shrines A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
are an example of such items that hold spiritual meaning. However, examples of the significance of meaning and spiritual integrity exist in North America as well. '' Jish'' is a
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
medicine bundle used in religious rituals related to curing or prevention, and specific care and established provenance is necessary to preserve the existence of ''jish'' versus a simple bundle of herb and grasses.
NAGPRA The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990. The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that ...
, or North American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has helped to highlight this issue of meaning and spiritual integrity in the United States. The act not only covers objects and remains recovered from American Indian graves, but the subsequent literary material developed based on the examination and analysis of these objects.


Culture

Physical preservation can also work to maintain spiritual and culture integrity of an object, especially in the case of musical instruments. At the violin museum in
Cremona, Italy Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of t ...
, nine instruments crafted by the Amatis, Guarneris, and by Antonio Stradivari are played ceremoniously six days a week – both to keep them in good physical, playable condition, and to maintain their cultural significance and meaning. From the island of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, the instruments of the gamelan are treated with respect and reverence, and played on a regular basis to maintain their physical and spiritual life. They are played only for certain occasions and only by certain individuals trained in the art. They must also be handled and stored with care to be sure no one should compromise their spiritual integrity by stepping over them. Gamelan instruments can be found in museums throughout North America, but to accurately remain gamelan instruments, they must be treated and respected according to both their physical and spiritual properties.


Collections

Preservation of meaning is perhaps most relevant and recognized in museum collections, but this does not mean there are not key books and documents that are defined by their social construction as well as their physical existence. When a book printed on acid paper turns to dust, there is no doubt that it ceases to exist as book. However, when books are stacked on top of a
Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...
, or a Guru Granth Sahib is repaired rather than ceremoniously cremated, the spiritual integrity of these texts is compromised or destroyed, and the physical object is void of spiritual or cultural meaning. It may at this point actually cease to be what it had been previously identified as, at least in terms of its cultural or spiritual meaning. Admittedly, more work and research needs to be done in regard to preservation of meaning in the area of Library Science. However, it is necessary for libraries and archival institutions to assess their preservation priorities in consideration of social and cultural meaning in tandem with physical attributes and informational context. Preservation and curatorial policies and activities can take into account how materials are housed, handled, repaired, or analyzed not just in terms of preserving physical qualities, but spiritual and cultural meaning as well.


See also

* Meaning-making *
Values (heritage) The values embodied in cultural heritage are identified in order to assess significance, prioritize resources, and inform conservation decision-making. It is recognised that values may compete and change over time, and that heritage may have diff ...


Footnotes


References

* Barker, Alex W. Archaeological ethics: Museums and collections. In ''Ethical Issues in Archaeology.'' Ed. Zimmerman, L.J., Vitelli, K.D., and Hollowell-Zimmer, J., 2003. * Foot, Mirjam. Preservation policy and planning. In ''Preservation Management for Libraries, Archives, and Museums''. Ed. Gorman, G.E. and Shep, S.J., 2006. * Karlström, Anna. 2005. Spiritual materiality: Heritage preservation in a Buddhist world? ''Journal of Social Archaeology'', 5(3), 338-354. * Kartomi, Margaret and Mendonça, Maria. "Gamelan: south East Asia. Social Functions." ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (Accessed 10 June 2007)

* Maré, Estelle. 2004. Creation and re-creation: The origins and preservation of the Shinto Shrines at Ise, Japan and the Abbey Church of St. Michael at Hildesheim, Germany. ''Religion & Theology'', 11(2), 161-180. {{Cultural Conservation-Restoration , state=expanded Museology Cultural heritage Art history Historic preservation Library science terminology Methods in archaeology