This is an evaluation of the contribution of the Australian Aboriginal collection in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin to the current public perception of Aboriginal cultural identity both in Berlin and wider afield. It gives an account of the collection including the origins and the nature of the objects and some of the key people who have contributed to its assembly and its presentation since the Museum’s foundation. This provides evidence of significant scientific and cultural links between Australia and Germany from the earliest times of white settlement and exploration in Australia. It also reveals how the period of active collection of Australian Aboriginal material in the Museum coincided with the activities of several key collectors within Australia who have been more widely appreciated in Australia for their other achievements in the sciences or the arts. / Assessed within a broad social and an historical context, why and how the collection was assembled, categorised, presented and received by scientists and the public over the years contributes to appreciating its role in the historical construction of a German view of Australian Aboriginal cultural identity. At the same time, the nature of institutional classifications of such cultural material is shown to contribute to the perceived gap in production of authentic Aboriginal art during the twentieth century within the Western account of art history. A comparative analysis of this information relative to other significant museum collections and presentations of Australian Aboriginal material in Germany, the UK, France and Australia contributes to a re-evaluation of the Berlin collection within a contemporary frame of reference involving both science and art. / This work leads me to recommended changes to the management and presentation of the collection of Australian material that is cognisant of the traditional scientific status of the Museum while introducing new museological strategies. It includes devising new programs of activity related to the collection that will be appropriate to its historical context while having contemporary relevance both to the institution, its wider institutional context and especially to the contemporary Australian Aboriginal communities who have links to the collection.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:20:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aline_Herbstrith_Batista_Dissertacao.pdf: 7407957 bytes, checksum: 0ae4c5c37f8d1313a87aca3bc5f76638 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-14 / The present work has as main objective to clarify what is a rare book, to understand such subject it is used authors who write about it.This dissertation brings a discussion regarding to the criteria of bibliographical rarity used by some Brazilian institutions, questioning the lack of a national qualification of rare works. It also covers the trajectory of rare books in Brazil, as well as engages in the preservation and conservation of library, bringing the conceptual differences between preservation, conservation and restoration. Using the Law Library of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, especially its Rare books room for a case study with the collection contained in this space, if it is rare or just old, bringing specific data related to this collection, as a rarity criteria, work language, age, condition, among other relevant data to this study. It also provides an explanation of the library as a place of memory, since memory is contained in its many supporters, thus characterized as the knowledge guardian, not in order to keel it for itself the past heritage produced by men, but through it, provide access to the past and preserve the memory / O presente trabalho tem como principal objetivo esclarecer o que realmente é uma obra ou livro raro, usando para isso autores que escrevem sobre o assunto em questão. Traz uma discussão com relação aos critérios de raridade bibliográfica utilizados por algumas instituições brasileiras, questionando a inexistência de uma política nacional de qualificação de obras raras. Engloba também a trajetória das obras raras no Brasil, além de abordar a preservação e conservação de acervos bibliográficos, trazendo as diferenças conceituais entre preservação, conservação e restauração. Utiliza a Biblioteca de Direito da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, mais especificamente sua Sala de obras raras , para um estudo de caso com relação ao acervo constante nesta sala, se são raros ou somente antigos, trazendo dados específicos relacionados a esse acervo, como critérios de raridade, idioma das obras, idade, estado de conservação, entre outros aspectos pertinentes ao estudo. Traz uma explicação da biblioteca como lugar de memória, já que a mesma está contida em seus inúmeros suportes, sendo assim caracterizada como guardiã do conhecimento, não no sentido de guardar para si o patrimônio produzido por homens do passado, mas, de através dele, possibilitar o acesso ao passado e preservar a memória