Exhibiting evolution an essay upon the museum’s subjectivity

Abstract

A museum is not only a physical place, a mere container of fragments of the cultural heritage. It is above all a unity of knowledge whose task of scientific research and analysis of the collections leads to an original interpretation of the world, to a specific culture, typical of each museum. Through its permanent exhibitions or any other means at its disposal, each museum conveys its cultural specificity to the visitor, a specificity which is different to that of other museums and does not intend to be objective. This paper aims to prove all the above by showing how, in different times and places, three important museums displayed three examples of evolution obtained form paleontology developing a totally subjective interpretation of the evolutionary process.