Cultural Manifestations Organised by the Astra Museum For the Campaign "Europe, a Unique Patrimony"

European Travellers in the Non-European Space and the Foundation of the World Ethnography Museums

The "Franz Binder" World Ethnography Museum
The "Franz Binder" World Ethnography Museum, inaugurated in 1993 is a success in the direction of putting into account the non-European patrimony existing, in the first place, in Sibiu, and then in Romania. It was created as a department of the "Astra" Museal Complex in Sibiu. It is the unique museum of this kind in Romania. The initiative of museal display entails two spheres: a permanent exhibition - "Culture And Art Of The People Of The World", and the field of the temporary thematic exhibitions - characterised by an extremely sustained activity, often realised in co-operation with other museums or institutions - entitled "Handicrafts Creation Of The People Of The World".

Collections From a chronological point of view, the "Franz Binder" Museum's collections can fall in two categories: the "old' ethnographic collections, which are composed of objects being donated in the second half of the XIXth century, and the "new" collections, that have been included in the museum's patrimony after 1990. By composition and size, the oldest collections of the "Franz Binder" Museum are some of the most valuable ones. They come all over the world and most of them were collected in the field by members of the local community. In the second half of the last century they were donated to The Transylvanian Society Of Natural Science from Sibiu.

Known for a long time under the name of the "exotic collection", the objects included here are a splendid, concrete and non-ephemeral reflection on the journey as a form of knowledge and on the birth of ethnology as a science. It is the time when the travellers preceded the ethnologists and, many times, for some of them, a real curiosity replaced academic formation with often amazing results. We mention just some of the travellers which contributed to the foundation, and then to the enrichment of the collections as well as some of their journeys:

Franz Binder, founder of the collection. Trader. A sojourn of almost ten years in Africa, in Cairo, then in Khartoum (1852-1861). Journey in the White Nile region (1860-1861). Franz Binder (1820-1875). Trader, then, in 1857, vice-consul of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in Khartoum. Journey in the White Nile region (1860-1861). He donated in 1862 the collection of African objects, coming mainly from the Nilotic tribes. The quality of the collecting act and the Franz Binder's historicity make this collection important in the field of the collection of this kind, as an exemplary form in the ethnography of the XIXth century: "This collection represents the oldest collection from the upper Nile, which we know today" (W. Hirschberg, Völkerkunde Museum, Vienna).

• Andreas Breckner. Doctor. Journey to China, Japan, Siam, Java, Ceylon, India (1871-1873).
• Carl F. Jickeli. Naturalist. Expedition to Abyssinia (1870-1871).
• Arthur von Sachsenheim. Ship doctor. Donations in 1896 and 1897. Objects from Asia (China, Hong Kong, India, Ceylon), Africa (East Africa, Green Head Islands), America (Brasilia), but also from Turkey or Norway (from the Lapponic population).
• Gustav A. Schoppelt. Geologist. Work journeys to Australia (1896), Ural (1898), Siberia, and Dutch Guyana (1902). He donated a collection of botanical, zoological and ethnographic objects. The ethnographic objects come from Australia.
• Hermann von Hannenheim. Consul in Egypt at the beginning of the XXth century. He donated an Egyptian mummy.

• Catalin Rang, visiting lecturer in Congo (ex-Zaire) and his wife, Violeta, in the seventies etc.

• to know the donators as historically characters and their links with the homeland;
• to show the vision of the donators, concerning the collected objects and the places where these come from;
• to retrieve the various fields of knowledge concerning the objects and their circulation in a dialogue with double direction, in which the museum and the public become, in turn, transmitter and, respectively, receiver. By putting the mentioned patrimony into account, its main quality is confirmed, that of being a result of the creativity and exchange, to a concrete level, as well as to an ideational level. Co-operation suggestions
• exchange of collections with contemporary objects of traditional style for enriching the collections (such exchanges have been achieved so far with Japan).