Museums, things and people: three case studies to reflect on the bonds between materiality and social life

ABSTRACT The article aims to argue about the relevance of the studies on the bonds established between people and objects in contemporary social life. Towards that end, it is based on theoretical references related in different measures to the field of material culture, such as Daniel Miller, Colin Campbell, Grant McCraken, Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, Igor Kopytoff and Tania Andrade Lima6. As an effect of a thematic approach, museums will be considered as privileged places for observing such bonds. In this sense, the article brings as examples the Sherlock Holmes Museum (London, England), the DDR Museum (Berlin, Germany) and the Harley-Davidson Museum (Milwaukee, USA). It is about emphasizing the importance of researches on the relations between people and objects, which is favored in this proposal through fictional narratives, narratives of historical periods and trajectories drawn in lifestyles and belongings.