Frontier Museums in the Province of Buenos Aires: between the glyptodon and the Indian settler

Abstract

During the 19th century the Argentinian province of Buenos Aires was a frontier ambit where the main society spread southward in waves, pushing out the indigenous populations and founding new cities. A part of the Indian groups remained on the «white» side of the porous frontier, in which many interactions and metissages took place. In the 20th century the old frontier cities established museums aimed at guarding the memory of the community. These museums are the American counterpart of European «colonial» museums. This article studies the relationship of those museums with the groups that populated the land, especially the «friendly Indians» who were integrated within the frontier as population advanced. The museums studied, most of which are community museums, have been classified in four categories: pot pourri museums, «culturalist» museums, «aestheticizing» museums, and «historicizing» museums.