An object can be carefully preserved and still be poorly understood. The Canadian Museum of History is exploring that problem through a project examining Palestinian amulets in its collection. In a Coffee with the Curator presentation, Saeedeh Niktab Etaati, curator of diasporas and multinational communities, and objects conservator Lavina Li describe research into 19th-century talismans and the meanings attached to them.
The museum says the project brings together anthropological research, scientific investigation including X-ray imaging, and collaboration with other museums. Those tools can help researchers explore an object's construction and history without assuming that physically opening it is necessary or appropriate. The inquiry also considers how amulets were used and passed down, and how their meanings may continue to change within diasporic communities today. The institution hasn't announced a definitive answer to every historical question, and it would be misleading to write as though it had.
The project raises a broader issue for museums: an object's chemical composition or construction is not the whole of its cultural significance. Personal belief, family memory and community interpretation may be central, especially when the original context is only partly documented. Scientific techniques and cultural research can complement each other, provided the institution makes clear what each form of evidence can and cannot establish. That distinction is as important to good public interpretation as it is to conservation.