Premium
Afghanistan: Re‐imagining the Nation Through the Museum ‐ The Jihad Museum in Herat
Author(s) -
Bijleveld Sophia Milosevic
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2006.tb00152.x
Subject(s) - citizenship , identity (music) , institution , representation (politics) , national identity , narrative , power (physics) , relation (database) , national museum , sociology , collective memory , media studies , history , visual arts , anthropology , aesthetics , art , law , political science , literature , social science , politics , physics , quantum mechanics , database , computer science
This paper aims to understand the relationship between museums and the representation of the past in Afghanistan, by looking at the new Jihad Museum in Herat that was commissioned by the warlord Ismael Khan. The museum is an ‘institution of power’ as defined by Anderson (1991), a lieu de mémoire according to Nora that acts on many levels, such as constructing national history, preserving national memory, transmitting a certain system of values, or simply leisure. By representing a certain vision of history, displaying artefacts in a particular manner, or using emotional language, the museum, a ‘narrative machinery’ (Bennett 1995), puts in relation the members of the same culture displayed, creates differences, and invites visitors to question their personal and collective identity. My paper presents the first results of my field research in Afghanistan and illustrates the more general debate on the formation of national identity and citizenship through cultural policies, and more specifically on the role of heritage, memory, museums and identity.