The Anthropological Study Of Private Museum

The museum, as a carrier of the study of the material culture in anthropology,can provide opportunities and platforms for the cultural presentation andinterpretation. The private museum, as a carrier of local knowledge, is aproduct of social progress and economic development, and it is also in need ofculture construction and development. The existence of private museums,which play an important role in the historical research and the cultureconstruction, provide a new window for people to view history from differentperspectives and different aspects.To explore the social and cultural functions of the private museum andpromote its healthy development, a private museum, Xinzhou Museum, inChifeng Aohan banner, Inner Mongolia was selected as a case study. Thetheory of ethnology and anthropology, field investigation and literatureresearch methods were used to introduce the museum’s creation, operation,and the collection, identification, classification and location of the museumcollections. Based on these, the role of the museum as a cultural exhibitionspace in cultural research, heritage and protection, and its social and culturalfunction in the knowledge cultivation and dissemination, improvement of thecultural accomplishment, and social services were discussed. And then thesituation of living and development of the private museum in underdevelopedarea were analyzed.The cultural relics showed by Xinzhou Museum are filled with culturalconnotation, and some works, which add the new materials to study fordifferent periods are even bare or first on show at home and abroad. Most ofcollections in this museum embody the obvious local culture label and it likesone specific Aohan civilization development history, playing an active role incultural display and transmission. As a social service agency, the museumcollections are witnesses of the development of human civilization, but also a carrier for transmission of civilization and cultural exchanges. The creationand development of Xinzhou Museum has certain particularity, but thedifficulties and problems it encounters are also experienced by mostly privatemuseum. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the predicament of theXinzhou Museum, this paper proposes some suitable development strategiesfor its characteristics to provide a certain reference for improving thedevelopment environment of private museums, promoting the healthy andorderly development of private museum. This study provides a new casestudy of cultural protection and anthropology.