Origin of the collections
The Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món's collections are made up of a wide range of origins, materials and uses. A diversity of heritage generated by human activity in all of its aspects: the symbolic world, work, private life, the domestic setting and social activity.
As a museum subject to anthropological discipline, this enormous diversity of heritage makes it possible to use a vital ethnological tool: comparing social and cultural groups. This comparison, made using objects or audiovisual support, requires an exhaustive, systematic documentation based on fieldwork.
For this reason, since the beginning of the Museu Etnològic, research and fieldwork have been seen as essential tasks for exploring and improving our knowledge about the collections, without forgetting contemporary ethnological heritage, from the past and present day, which makes it possible for the museum to connect with the society surrounding it, in order to capture its constant transformation. In this sense, documentation, research and contact with the places of origin of collection items, —from the farthest places to those closest by, such as Barcelona— have always been part of the museum's mission.
The campaigns and journeys
Since the creation of the original museums that eventually became the Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món, there have been various collection campaigns and expeditions.
Find out about the campaigns and journeys
Protagonists
The main origin of the collections are the ethno-anthropological campaigns and expeditions carried out until the 1960s, by both museum personnel and other individuals linked to the institution, such as the sculptor Eudald Serra and the collector Albert Folch.
Meet the protagonists
