Museums can be a good platform for creating awareness about COVID- 19 and preventing the occurrence of rumour, said Tagore National Fellow and ex-director of IGRMS, Prof Kishor K Basa.
Basa, was delivering lecture on Anthropology and Museums in India: Trends and Trajectories. It was part of webinar organised by IGRMS through Facebook.
He suggested that after the post COVID -19, IGRMS should put up an exhibition and if possible make a separate pandemic gallery or museum which could deal with people’s response to COVID-19 in terms of diversity of masks, the unique methods developed by people for maintaining social distance, production of literature both serious and humourous and, not the least, the question of unemployment, domestic violence, migration labour – whose magnitude is being compared with that of days of partition.
The lecture was comprised three sections. In the first he discussed about anthropology and museums during the colonial period from 1784 to 1947, the period which witnessed the emergence of anthropology and museums in India as distinct disciplines.
In the second section, he spoke on Anthropology and Museums in India from 1947 till to date under two sub-headings: museums directly relating to anthropology and museums with anthropological perspectives.
The third section dealt with the implications of COVID-19 for museum anthropology. Citing examples of some museums and exhibitions in USA, he pointed out that museums can be a good platform for creating awareness about Covid- 19 and preventing the occurrence of rumour.
