IN FOCUS
History, as these museums present it, is not limited to the events Moroccans lived through in the past. It extends to what remains of that past in material culture, social practices, and the symbolic values attached to custom and tradition. Hence, architectural elements, garments, jewelry, embroidery, crafts, household utensils, and musical instruments, inherited from different periods of Moroccan history, take visitors on a journey across many eras and social and cultural settings.
These objects give us a distinct sense of the times earlier generations lived through and help us imagine how they experienced and managed their lives. Carrying both material and symbolic meaning, this heritage has shaped Moroccan culture over centuries, drawing on many sources and the interplay among diverse cultural and civilizational elements. That interplay has left its mark on both tangible and intangible heritage, the two fields through which memory endures and renews itself.
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History, as these museums present it, is not limited to the events Moroccans lived through in the past.
Where Past and Present Meet
What sets ethnographic museums apart from other kinds of museums is the bond between their collections and the social history that produced them. Tools, garments, and crafts reveal the ways of life, customs, and skills Moroccans practiced over time. The ethnographic museum thus offers a miniature portrait of Moroccan cultural heritage and of the social settings in which these objects were made and used.
From this perspective, the ethnographic museum offers a window into Morocco’ s social and cultural history. It restores the connections between objects and everyday life, and between objects and the social and cultural practices that imbue them with meaning. In doing so, it brings visitors closer to the worlds of Moroccan society: its material culture and the ways of life, beliefs, customs, and artistic expressions that define it.
Although the ethnographic museum, in its contemporary sense, is a modern institution for preserving, studying, and displaying cultural memory, the nature of its collections raises a question about the place of everyday life and material culture in the writing of history. Traditional approaches to history long prioritized political events, institutions of power, influential figures, and written sources, while the details of daily life, social
Bab El Oqla Museum, Tetouan © National Foundation of Museums of Morocco
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