Mausoleum or museum: Engaging the significance of cultural museum collections for heritage tourism in the 21st century

Abstract

Tangible and intangible elements of culture are the primary sustenance of heritage tourism. They include traditional dance, folklore, songs, arts and craft, indigenous technologies, festivals, rituals, and rites. All these are cultural products designed to embody different activities. They constitute some of the major attractions of present-day cultural museums. Although these objects are imbued with functional roles through which they interact with society, yet within the confines of cultural museums, they are seemingly lifeless; needing the curator to narrate their relevance. Their functional role in the community seems lost as no opportunity is given or created to display their cultural relevance to amuse curious museum visitors. This raises some questions, is the museum a mausoleum of cultural products? How can mere narration of lifeless objects satisfy visitors' curiosity and taste for a new experience? To answer these salient questions, this paper employed desktop research design using two case studies, the Osun Osogbo sacred grove in Osun state and the palace of the Oba of Benin Nigeria, to explore the significance of cultural museums in promoting heritage tourism through the functional role of its collections. The study found that living heritage negates their original community role upon entry into the modern museum. The paper concludes that the significance of cultural museum collections can be revived by decolonizing the Eurocentric paradigm and indigenizing curatorial practices of western-modeled museums in Nigeria.