Mellan jägare och jordbrukare framställningen av neolitiseringsprocessen i museiutställningar

Sammanfattning

This study examines how two western Swedish museums presents the process of neolithisation in their permanent exhibitions. The study focuses on how the transition from hunters and gatherers to agricultural communities are described and portrayed in the narrative of the exhibition. Emphasis is placed on which changes are highlighted as important, for example sedentism, technological development and social organization, and how these changes are presented in exhibition texts, artefacts, human remains and spatial designs. The empirical material consists of the exhibition “Between ice and fire” (Mellan is och eld) at Västergötlands museum and “Prehistory of Falbygden” (Forntid på Falbygden) at Falbygdens museum. By comparing the two exibhitions the study analyzes how similarities and differences in their representation contribute to the overall image of the Stone Age and societal development communicated by the museums. The study’s main argument are that the museum’s exhibition are characterized by a narrative of progress. The transition to agriculture is portrayed as a step towards a more organised and complex society. This affects how the Stone Age and societal development is understood and interpreted by visitors. The study is inspired by Marxist theory with focus on a selected set of concepts such as production, class and ideology. As a complement to these concepts, Antonio Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony is also applied to examine how dominant interpretations of the past are reproduced. The study is based on a narrative analysis as a method to examine how the story is told rather than what is told. This method serves as a tool for identifying structure, language and ideological dimensions of the narrative.