Lime container (Before 1856) by Aboriginal Peoples of Papua New GuineaMudec - Museum of Cultures
Rhombus, musical instrument (19th century) by Aboriginal Australian PeoplesMudec - Museum of Cultures
Collection of Palethnology and Ethnography
This section of MUDEC’s permanent exhibit is dedicated to what used to be the Raccolta di Paletnologia ed Etnografia [Collection of Palethnology and Ethnography] of Milan’s Civic Museum of Natural History. Established in 1858, the collection featured an eclectic mix of objects from around the world gathered through geographic explorations and the evangelizing missions of religious orders like the Fathers of San Calocero. The explorers who contributed to the museum’s collection included some of the most important names tied to the history of the natural sciences in Italy, like Gaetano Osculati and Paolo Mantegazza, the General Consul of the Kingdom of Italy, Cristoforo Robecchi, and Antonio Raimondi, a political exile and one of the first Italian researchers of Peru.
Objects from the Museum of Natural History
Ever since its establishment, the Museum of Natural History received artifacts from all over the world from geographic explorers and naturalists who kept a steady correspondence with the museum director. The Museum’s Collection of Palethnology and Ethnography was created in 1858 to display this wealth of objects to the Milanese public.
Tapa (non-woven fabric) (Before 1856) by Aboriginal Peoples of Papua New GuineaMudec - Museum of Cultures
Tapa is the Polynesian word for natural non-woven fabrics made out of plant bark: use of the term is documented since the early 18th century. This object was collected by Italian missioners in Papa New Guinea
Arrowhead (9.000-5.000 BC?) by Pre-Hispanic CulturesMudec - Museum of Cultures
Boomerang (19th century) by Aboriginal Australian PeoplesMudec - Museum of Cultures
Among populations of central and northern Australia, boomerangs are also used as musical instruments to accompany moments of dancing and singing.
Braided stirrup-spout bottle (10th-14th century) by Late Sican CultureMudec - Museum of Cultures
The Amerindian artifacts in this section offer an example of the kind of materials that were collected by archeologists and ethnographers at the time, ranging from Andean pottery to lithic tools, typical items of 19th century museums exhibited as documents of the technology of “primitive people”.
Spearhead (9000-5000 BC?) by Pre-Hispanic CulturesMudec - Museum of Cultures
Bottle with zoomorphic chamber in the shape of a llama head (10th-14th century) by Sican CultureMudec - Museum of Cultures
This object served a propitiatory function: llamas are among the most widely represented domestic animals in Andean art because of their central role in the local economy.
