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Introduction
After the process of creation of the national and provincial
museums in Argentina in the middle of the s. XIX, Pupio1 analyzes
how the appropriate context arose for the creation and expansion
of municipal museums in the province of Buenos Aires during the
rst half of the s. XX. This author marks an important difference that
will be applicable to the case under study and that is that unlike the
rst, ie the metropolitan museums, those located in small cities were
practically always formed from particular collections or biographical,
resembling the old cabinets of oddities.2 This is how they guarded,
almost indistinctly, different types of historical objects, including also
of archaeological origin, from the ne arts and even, from the natural
sciences. Indeed, this type of museum and the Sanvincetino museum in
particular, contain objects and also various types of documents3 among
which stand out: photos, negatives, different types of documentary
records (including old maps) and sometimes, also publications. In its
great majority and as it happened with our case of study, the private
collections of this have their origin in certain personages, generally
transcendental within the history of the towns or cities of the province.
This makes them not only the main donors but also the creators and
directors of the institution, establishing, as a consequence, some of the
strategies for the entry of new objects, heir selection and exhibition.
As well as what happened at the national and provincial level, the
institutions that were created at the municipal level, whether private
or public, to protect, study and stage these collections, had as their
primary objective to leave the private sphere, the house of family and
be available for the communities of origin, in order to collaborate with
the education of the public and then create an identity and a local
culture.1 The emergence of these museum of San Vicente (Figure 1)
presented here followed these general guidelines and, in addition, can
be classied as a “single parent”.1,4 In effect, it was the product of the
performance of Mr. Martins, who is constantly remembered by the
community as its creator since, in addition, a space where objects are
exhibited in his memory always stands out in a privileged place in the
house-museum, that were his property coinciding with what happens
with other museums of the same style.1,5 In this case it is about your
desk and your valuables: your typewriter, your glasses, your watch,
your mug, your knife, your mate, your camera, some of your papers,
among the main ones. In the framework of the archaeological project
that addresses the problem of identity processes in border areas and
frames this work, the information gathered in the community and
various means of dissemination generated by it coincide in dening
the Sanvicentino Cultural Museum as a museum of manners rather
than historical. This is due, essentially, to the characteristics of its
origin, from a particular collection and, more especially, in accordance
with its cultural-educational objectives focused on showing what it is
to be Sanvicentino, as well as its subsequent growth, through of the
collection of certain objects, aspects that we will develop later.
In order to know the process of origin, its objectives and the
making of the museum, as well as the type of practices (conservation
and donation) that are linked to the objects stored there and the identity
implications that are derived from them, we were guided by the
history of the development of museums at the national and local level
and, also, by the theory of the Objects Cultural Biography.6 Although
archeology already has a long history and its own methods to analyze
the life history of objects through different approaches such as, for
example, the sequence of events and decisions in the conformation of
its operational chain, such as it has been demonstrated in numerous
national and international works focused on the most technological
aspects of objects; the method that implies the theory that objects can
be addressed in his biography, almost in the same way as people, turns
out to be more interesting for the objectives proposed here since it
links historical, anthropological and archaeological information. This
theory and method were postulated in 1986 by Kopytoff7 and was
developed especially throughout the 1990s by several authors, among
which we highlight Gosden and Marshall, especially in what has to do
with objects’ agency and their performance.8
More recently and in spite of methodological difculties for its
application, it continues to be a valid method to reveal at least some of
the relationships established between people and objects,9 as in the case
J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484. 478
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The case of the sanvicentino museum in the
province of buenos aires, argentina
Volume 3 Issue 3 - 2018
Mariel Alejandra Lopez
Department of Filosofía Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Correspondence: Mariel Alejandra López, Department of
Filosofía Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: 5411-5287-
2632, Email marielarqueologia@yahoo.com.ar
Received: February 26, 2018 | Published: June 12, 2018
Abstract
From a case study in a research project dedicated to the problems of Archeology of identity
in an area of historic border with the city of Buenos Aires, current the San Vicente Partido,
we explores the practices of donation and conservation of objects. It has been conducted
the survey in the Sanvicentine Cultural Museum, located in the city of San Vicente, head
of eponymous partido, of all those considered to be antiques, either by its historical or
archaeological value, as well as others who are placed there as an ornaments. This
survey was also complemented by documentation of diverse nature and carrying out an
anthropological interview to one of the neighbors who, with a small group, takes care of the
museum and its attendance sporadically. The information exposed allows us to understand
some of the main characteristics of the aforementioned practices, not only in this type of
museums, but also in the setting-up of private collections such as the one that gave rise to
this particular museum. Finally, we discuss the implications that these objects had and still
have in the construction of identities in this type of social contexts.
Keywords: museum, historical objects, archaeological objects, identities, san vicente,
buenos aires, república argentina
Journal of Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences
Case Report Open Access
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 479
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
presented here. In order to comply with our study objectives, a series
of activities were carried out, among which are: the search for edited
and unpublished information through different types of publications,
including the dissemination ones, as well as informal interviews with
different neighbors of San Vicente, the anthropological interview
with one of the members that currently makes up the commission
of friends of the museum and that is sporadically responsible for its
opening to the public (key informant), the photographic survey of the
exhibits, as well as the registration of their names, primary functions
and ties established between them and their donors from the interview
with our main informant. The main anthropological interview was of
semi-structured type around seven axes that sought to know, through
open questions, the conservation and donation practices that made
the growth of this museum possible. In this sense, the questions were
oriented to know and then evaluate, a series of issues related more
closely to the implications linked to the processes of construction of
the identity of San Vicente through the objects that are exposed there
and, in some cases, from its biography itself:
I. The origin and history of the museum, in order to identify and
evaluate whether
a. The initiative was generated from authorities or neighbors
b. They received advice, guidance, aesthetics from someone or
from a particular sector of society
II. The type of objects it collects, in order to identify and assess
whether
a. Objects are functioning as analogues of human memory
b. The objects fulll some particular identity function within the
sample
c. Objects preserve or transfer memory
III. Who were the donors of the objects currently exposed, in order
to identify and evaluate
a. Which voices remember and which mutes
b. If the objects reveal the memory of different social groups, which
IV. What were the causes of the donation of these objects, in order to
identify and evaluate if
a. The donation aims to preserve the identity of all those who make
up the society or only of some characters or social groups
b. The donation reveals a process of identity construction in itself
c. The donation is to perpetuate the memory, which, of whom or
who
V. What were the primary functions, possible uses and reuses of
these objects in order to identify and evaluate if
a. The object constitutes a solid memory marker
VI. How are these objects classied, in order to identify and evaluate
if:
a. There is a registration book of the objects or another type of
record and what information is recorded in it
b. The denomination and description of the objects was given by the
donors or another person in charge of it
c. The denomination of the different objects responds to some
criterion
VII. What is the function/s of the museum in order to identify and
evaluate if
a. The museum is a reservoir/deposit of objects
b. The museum also has other purposes, such as: social, educational,
tourism, among the main ones
Figure 1 San Vicente, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America.
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 480
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
For the photographic survey of the objects, the IFRAO scale was
used as a metric and chromatic reference and in order to determine
their names and functions, an anthropological interview conducted
with a key informant was followed by a tour stopped next to the
key informant in order to capture in our eld notebook as much
information as possible about each of the objects due to the absence
of a seat book or any record in this regard.
Case presentation
Brief history of the origin and conformation of the
sanvicentine cultural museum josé ignacio martins
According to the data collected on institutional and outreach web
pages about San Vicente and its culture, as well as based on data
provided by different local residents and by our key informant, we
can say that the Sanvicentino Cultural Museum has its beginnings
in 1987, when José Ignacio decides to create it from his particular
collection of objects. For the support of the museum and as it is
observed in the façade of the museum, from its creation and until the
present time the museum is in charge of a commission of neighbors
of which also originally he was a part.Martins was a personality of
San Vicente. In fact, shortly after starting to reside in San Vicente,
back in 1969, he began to stand out due to a series of actions that
he led along with some followers or adherents of San Vicente. This
is how, for example, in 1972 he created the Crusade Hernandiana
Sanvicentina, which took horse from San Vicente to 10 gauchos in the
area to the town of Pehuajó on the 100th anniversary of Martín Fierro.
In addition to participating actively in politics and occupying various
positions in the Department of San Vicente, Martins was the creator of
the municipal shield (Figure 2) and the director of many of the cultural
events of the place, as well as the monuments that stand out there: the
chasqui, the guitar or those that remember General Viamonte and the
painter Valls. It is interesting to note that although there is a history of
San Vicente that traces its formal origins in the mid-s. XVII with the
performance of prominent personages of that time,10 with these last
monuments, a kind of recognition was materialized for those who are
later considered as main protagonists of the place and part of the rst
settlers of the area.
The martins’ prole the collection and the museum
According to the collected data, although Martins had a classic
collector prole, the place he occupied in the Sanvicentina society
generated a prestige equivalent to that of a trained historian,
archaeologist or museologist, allowing him not only to reconstruct
part of the written history but also of the not yet written one. This can
be exemplied by his attempt to build the history of a mission and a
reduction based on the remains of a wooden cross with pedestal found
in the area. Martins enthroned it in a central corner of the current city
of San Vicente. This situation caused an ofcial recognition of the
fact that, in addition, it was materialized through reminder plaques
(Figure 3) (Figure 4). It is interesting to note that even though the
effective presence in San Vicente of this mission or reduction has not
been documented historical nor archaeologically10,11 this monument
constitutes an important milestone in the history of the town, to the
point that it operates almost in the manner of a founding myth.
From the prole carried out by Martins it was not difcult then to
impose his own collection of objects as the inaugural of the projected
museum but, in addition, to impose certain criteria that, although not
written, can be read in the narrative that is observed in the collection
exhibited in the different rooms. This narrative imposes the discourse
of a colonial origin of the town of San Vicente, over the overlapping
presence of native Indians in the area. To do so, a series of objects is
shown, supposedly commonly used in the daily life of these ancient
settlers, who only highlight certain socio-economic sectors. In effect,
these objects speak to us, mainly, of the well-to-do classes of San
Vicente and of the gure of the gaucho or country man. In this sense,
although the collection was and remains receptive to the donation of
ancient objects, which in some cases they recognize as historical and
in others as archaeological, preserved by the different families of the
city and the partido. As a consequence of the processes that we have
been able to differentiate and that distinguish between a differential
family preservation and a selective donation, the museum’s
collection is composed of a number of objects that, although very
heterogeneous, do not represent the entire history of this border area.
In addition, different causes that we have not investigated in depth
made that, despite the different regulations that were happening in
the last half of s. XX to formalize the situation of private collections
and local museums, centralize their administration and control the
cultural policy of the province of Buenos Aires,1 as well as the various
attempts made by the creator of the museum and the neigbours to
obtain a greater recognition by different governmental bodies, the
museum remains still outside the orbit of Culture and /or Education of
the Partido de San Vicente.
Figure 2 Coat of arms of San Vincente.
In these senses, in this museum are not the main technical
aspects that are part of the common guidelines in museums in the
province. Regarding this and in relation to the implications of family
conservation practices and selective donation, our informant assured
that the absence of registers would be largely due to the fact that a
large part of the data referring to the objects were stored in the memory
of the friends of the museum, what was shown to us when we were
traveling together, object by object and he contributed data related
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 481
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
to the use, donor family and a brief history of how that object had
arrived there. In this way, our key informant was putting the object
itself as analog or image of human memory and, in this sense, as a
solid marker of that memory supposedly shared by all the members
of the local community. These data could be easily recognized by any
Sanvicentino, marking the difference with the others, which included
me. Regarding the current state and situation of the museum, especially
in regard to its lack of insertion in any of the spaces of the government
orbit, as well as the lack of funding sources for its maintenance, it
continues to be sustained by the goodwill of the friends of the museum,
without a xed day and schedule for the attention to the public, even
when within their goals is the possibility of organizing visits, such as
those that occasionally take place for schoolchildren in the locality or
as gatherings , which some years ago organized more frequently for
the meeting of the neighbors, the people of San Vicente.
Figure 3 Cross of Reduction restored and enclosed within a glazed
construction in one of the corners of the central square of San Vicente city.
Figure 4 Reminder plate with which the recognition of the attribution of the
cross to the mission of the Indians of the reduction that, according to Martins,
would have existed in San Vicente before its foundation.
Discussion
Towards a cultural biography of museum objects
that contributed to the conformation of current
sanvicentine identity
Analyzing objects only from the formal, stylistic and functional
point of view implies a traditional typological theoretical framework
that ignores their relationship with the subjects who thought, produced
and/or used and reused them in different contexts or instances. In this
investigation and considering the construction of identities in border
areas, the analysis of the conserved objects is framed in a study that
pretends enter part of the life history of those objects,12 which some
authors reformulated from a more anthropological point of view, using
another language, scale and objectives, calling it cultural biography of
objects.6 In effect, from this last analytical option the researcher aims
to examine objects or artifacts in particular or of certain chronological
and/or geographical sets in their relationship with people and vice
versa.9
The difference between one and another approach to the analysis
of objects (the traditional one and that of the biography of the objects)
becomes evident when we observe that even when it comes to objects
that remain decontextualized and static in a showcase, on a table or a
shelf of the museum, many of them retain connections with the people
who produced them, but also with those who used them and/or even
donated them. They even continue to acquire meanings over time in
their connection with new people. For example, a plate of earthenware
is important according to its place of origin and date of production,
but it is also according to the person who used it and/or donated it to
the museum. Thus and as archaeologically demonstrated in the city
of Buenos Aires, a pottery of European origin may not have been the
most expensive in its place of origin but, in the migratory context,
increased its value to be in the hands of a few, with certain surnames,
elites and/or under certain circumstances or uses.13
This approach, together with the analysis perspective of
Connerton14,15 about being able to determine what societies remember
or silence, is then useful to analyze this case since, in general terms
and according to the different contexts, it is applied universally.6
Nevertheless, it is important to emphasize here that the context and its
in-depth knowledge is really decisive in order to understand the agency
of objects. We consider in short that this analytical perspective can be
applied to museum objects since the objects that extend their agency or
rationale over time, through different systems of understanding, act as
a kind of reincarnation or biographical entanglement.9 Consequently,
it can be said that there are certain objects that are displayed in
museums of this type that function as solid memory markers, even
with material modications through. Thus, after the typological
functional characterization of the objects, in this particular work
we concentrate on the identication and preliminary explanation of
family conservation practices and selective donation that led to these
objects being part of this museum. In this sense we stop at the analysis
of the type of relationships that these objects entered into with people,
in this case with those that conserved them and then donated them
and vice versa. To do this, we presents two types of objects that,
formally and from a traditional typological and descriptive analysis,
could be dened as rst necessity or commodity artifacts, earthenware
dishes and a pava. However, either by its context of use, its style,
distribution circuit and particular relationship with certain characters
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 482
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
of San Vicente’s history, they have an added value that resembles
what in terms of the cultural biography of the objects is considered
a gift6 a precious commodity. Under the analytical perspective of the
cultural biography of the objects, both can keep a value conferred by
the relationships that certain people entered into with them, they can
even continue to accumulate value, even when those people are no
longer there.In fact, it is not common dishes and a pava, they are the
dishes of the Luzzy Murray family and Mr. Martins’ pava. These are
common objects in the daily life of their users but the value they have
today when being exposed in the museum is a consequence of the
life history that can be counted from them and that is linked to their
materiality, with their use in contexts individuals and with the role
of their respective owners, who kept and donated them (differential
family preservation and selective donation) to the museum.
The dishes of the luzzy murray family
The case of earthenware dishes featured in the homes of rich
families, as a sign and symbol of their wealthiness, is often repeated
throughout the history of the West, especially from the conformation
of what Romero16 called the mentality bourgeois that began to
characterize timidly towards the s. XI to some sectors of the incipient
European cities, for that reason it was also called urban mentality.
The same continued to grow over the centuries to reach America
and well into the s. XIX, when it begins to dispute the place with the
cultured bourgeoisies, the progressive elites. According to Romero,
this mentality reinforces its more traditional aspects and its old beliefs
precisely in the s. XIX and a good example of this is Romanticism,
a cultural phenomenon that confronts the bourgeoisie with the
consequences of the Industrial Revolution rst and the emergence
of the industrial proletariat later. In this sense, we can say that the
societies of that time transform their structure according to two
possible models:
I. The orthodox scheme that was of the Illuminist tradition, liberal
and progressive, which denies social mobility
II. The scheme of the rationalization of the traditional conception
of society and power, carried out to its ultimate consequences by
the aristocracies.
Although this proposal is basically applicable directly to the old
continent, the waves of immigration from Europe that populated
these rst border areas, such as the city of Buenos Aires, makes it
possible to establish a certain parallelism or inheritance of mentalities/
ideologies that, without a doubt, anchored in certain ways to occupy
the new spaces and build a life through certain materialities, objects
that allowed to look like, as politically it happened in the time of Rosas
with the punzó badge. The changes that occur in the middle of s. XIX
and that turn out to be transcendental, especially in this mentality, is
what could explain a part of the Sanvicentina society of that time,
time in which the Department is conformed and the transfer of the old
town takes place to its current location. This society of the mid-s. XIX
Sanvicentina is the one that is most appreciated in the narrative of this
museum. Maybe as a way to cling to that mentality that was associated
and continues to do so in the discourse of some Sanvicentinos, with
the most traditional values of society, those that also refer to the rst
settlers who came from Europe to the area at the beginning from the
s. XVII. Returning to the case we took, for example, the donation of
the Luzzy Murray family consists of a series of 7 plates arranged on a
shelf specially designed to show them. Although they offer a variety
of styles it could be said that, in general terms, they refer to the end
of s. XIX and early-middle of s. XX. Even though some plates of
European origin are included in the repertoire, such as mark Alfred
Meakin (England); there are also national industry, such as the mark
Festival (Figure 5(A)) (Figure 5(B).
Figure 5(A) Earthenware plate of the s. XIX Mark Alfred Meakin LTD, English
industry.
Figure 5(B) Earthenware plate of the s. XIX Mark Alfred Meakin LTD, English
industry.
Although we cannot go into the biography of each of the dishes
in particular we can say that, in general and according to the survey
made, these dishes were conserved due to their materiality, provenance
value or connection with certain family members (differential family
conservation). Also, their selective donation is because they constitute
a sample of the belongings of Mrs. Luzzi Murray, recognized by San
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 483
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
Vicente as someone important and local. From this point of view the
cultural biography of these dishes rather than reinforcing the memory
of their function or use in themselves, reinforces the memory of
surnames, of a family that occupied a certain place in society. This
is conrmed when our key informant tells us that this biography is
used as a teaching resource to show part of the identity of the San
Vicente society in the occasional visits of San Vicente schoolchildren
and tourists.
The pava of Mr. Martins
The pava of Mr. Martins, used by the gauchos on their way to
Pehuajó in commemoration of the centenary of the publication of
Martin Fierro book, is clear typology of mid-s. XX. As an object
of common or daily use, commodity, it has no greater signicance
than the one given by the habit of drinking mate served with it.
Hence, it is a clear example by which some Sanvicentinos currently
identify this museum with a museum of customs. Nevertheless and as
previously anticipated, it is the participation of this game that made
this object particularly valuable. Hence, it is an important object in
the collection and occupies a prominent place in it. In a similar way
to the previously mentioned case of earthenware dishes and from
the point of view of cultural biography, this more than reinforces
the memory of its function or use in itself. The pava of Mr. Martins
reinforces the memory of the founder of the museum as well as its
agency in a historical event. This is another of the important cases in
which the object is used as a didactic resource to show Sanvicentina
identity. Implications of the conservation and donation practices of
the objects that make up the exposed collection of the Sanvicentino
Cultural Museum If we start from the assumption that both the objects
that are and those that we know that were part of the material culture
of the place but have not been preserved or donated, talk about the
mechanisms, generally symbolic, through which the “Systems of
belonging and differentiation” that, according to Crespo and Tozzini
show or “silence” the history of the place conforming “a privileged
observatory to apprehend the relations of power in play in the zone”;17
in this case, we can deduce some of the implications of the practices
that were put into play to show who can be considered as local natives
and, more specically, from San Vicente.
In this sense, despite not having a great current recognition
from the political-institutional point of view, the Sanvicentino
Cultural Museum is a product of the processes of belonging and
differentiation that begin very early in the area and continue to take
hold throughout the year, throughout the twentieth century, even to
the present. In effect, the differentiation between Sanvicentino and
non-Sanvicentino, which can be seen in local early documentation, is
still possible to be observed both in the narrative of the museum and
in the dialogue with those who are currently considered neighbors of
San Vicente. It is noteworthy that this differentiation is the product
of the construction of the identity of San Vincente for ascription and
not only by birth in the place and demands to be recognized by the
community, self-nomination is not enough. From this position and if
we consider the “heritage” of the museum as a social construction
composed of all those objects that have been selected by a certain
group of people for its symbolic value in its different aspects: social,
economic and/or political,17 we can deduce that this heritage not only
represents the group or those they want to represent, but also excludes
any object that represents another group (s) with whom they do not
identify themselves. In this sense, it is not by chance that the objects
shown do not identify the original inhabitants, the Indians, of the area.
Indeed, although the Sanvicentino Cultural Museum seems to
show a unity between the past and the present, it uses clear resources
according to a narrative or expository historical narrative that
privileges certain groups over others. Thus, while it shows in the
last shelf of a glass cabinet only a dozen objects that speak of a pre-
Hispanic past common with the macro region, it exposes in several
spaces and in abundance and detail those objects that were part of the
daily life of the settlers of the old town and current city of San Vicente.
They are the objects that belonged to people coming from Europe who
also formed the elite of the place. But it is also about those objects that
represent the typical Sanvicentino that legitimizes the sectors of power
and/or more socially recognized. Despite this general assessment,
there is no single theory or explanation to understand how each object
is related to the relationships previously established with it.6 In the
region bordering the city of Buenos Aires, as well as in it, the welfare,
prestige and/or power of a person or social class manifested itself
through a series of objects, not only of different materiality but also
of different typology. According to the analyzed examples, they are
not only valuable for their materiality, productive process, technology
or provenance, but also for their meanings accumulated over time. In
particular and in addition, it could be said that the objects exhibited in
the Sanvicentino Cultural Museum describe the prominent people in
the Sanvicentine society.
In this way, although almost silently, this museum still operates
actively on the inhabitants of San Vicente through guided visits
to schoolchildren or through meetings in the format “tertulias”
(conversations). These two formats describes their histories, also
reinforces a social order that identies the majority of those who
currently recognize themselves as Sanvicentinos. In this sense, the
objects that narrate the history of San Vicente are generically identied
as historical and it is not easily discriminated when, or from what
moment, they can identify archaeological objects, except for the few
pieces that are linked to the Indians. If we consider that historically
San Vicente Department was part of what was known as the “Buenos
Aires campaign”, border area to the early city of Buenos Aires and was
originally conceived as a “desert” space of “population” but stalked by
the an Indian who roamed, it is not surprising that the aforementioned
museum, like the local histories, has focused on the colonial origin of
this space, silencing the past of the original communities.
In this sense, it is interesting to note that within the narrative of the
museum there is space not only for some objects of Indians but also
for the pedestal of a wooden cross that, according to Martins, was the
product of the 17th century mission around to the San Vicente lagoon.
Until now, the missionary origin of their ancestors is more a myth
than a history, since this mission was archaeologically sought without
success through the only work antecedent to ours.11 Academically
speaking, the mission alluded to in this mythical history could be
the one that is currently referenced in a space located further south
of the old town of San Vicente and close to the possible location of
Fort El Zanjón, from the s. XVIII.19 What is interesting here of this
story is, in any case, to understand the role of Martins as historian
and archaeologist, when achieving the ofcial recognition of the
time of said history, entering the cross of the reduction in one of the
corners of the central square of the city of San Vicente. It is worth
mentioning, however, that currently many people, including our key
informant and culture authorities, recognize that this cross could be
The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina 484
Copyright:
©2018 Lopez
Citation: Lopez MA. The case of the sanvicentino museum in the province of buenos aires, argentina. J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(3):478‒484.
DOI: 10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00121
the product of the missions carried out later, during the 19th century,
for the pacication of the area.
In short, the narrative of the exhibition can be read through the
exhibits according to a scale of importance that indicates that there
were native communities, Indians, but the settlement was the product
of the immigrants, preferably Europeans, who at the beginning of s.
XVIII were established following the founding construction of the
chapel of Vicente Pessoa in the historic town of San Vicente. These
characteristics do nothing more than bare the conictive processes
generated by the heritage, generally opposing, as in many other cases,19
the original communities or part of them with the state organisms.17,20
The practices of family conservation and selective donation of certain
and preferential types of objects reproduce the power relations that
were characteristic in this peripheral border area of the city of Buenos
Aires. In effect, or in other words, on this frontier as well as in the
city itself, the population was whitewashed using, in addition to the
written history, the story told through the objects preserved by the
families of neighbors and donated selectively.
In addition, we observe that it is still necessary to decipher what
are the characteristics that make that some objects of the ofcial
history can be considered historical or archaeological. In fact, our key
informant was surprised when we asked him about it at the end of
the interview because from this point of view the objects exposed are
only historic or ornaments, according to the function that they fulll
in the exhibition. Returning to the examples mentioned in relation to
the private collection of Mr. Martins, as well as those donated by the
Luzzy Murray family, the objects acquire signicance and agency
in the construction of the Sanvicentine identity, thanks to the value
acquired by their links with their bearers or users, rather than because
of its origin and technology. Something similar to what happens with
the transcendent characters of San Vicente’s history, who stand out
and are recognized as Sanvicentinos for their performance but also for
their belongings. In this sense, we consider that starting from a material
and documentary analysis that goes from the s. XX backwards will
allow us to better understand the subtle differences in the agencies
of people and objects that await us in the archaeological sequence of
this settlement. Especially because, as Gosden points out, “Periods of
change are important in bringing out the relationships between people
and their object worlds, looking at that strands of continuities in the
requirements objects of people, as well as the changes”.21
Acknowledgements
To Lic. Mariela A. Petuaud, archaeologist Sanvicentina, with whom
I was able to get into this case of study and we relieved this museum.
To the Secretary of Culture, Mr. Javier Carbone, who facilitated at
all times the beginning and continuity of this study project in the San
Vicente Partido. And Mr. Osvaldo Lara, neighbor and friend of the
museum, who opened us with great enthusiasm the doors of it.
Conict of interest
Author declares that there is no conict of interest.
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