O ato colecionador

Abstract

This paper discusses collecting and its suitability and relevance to the subjects of Archival Science, Library Science and Museum Studies. That way, we propose the concept of collecting act as a social practice built and expanded by the representations of culture. In order to delimit the thesis object, the concept of categorization of collecting is introduced into three historical periods: Renaissance, Enlightenment and Contemporaneity, seeking to relate them to the subjects presented in this thesis. In addition to this categorization we referred to the basic theoretical principles of philosophers such as Gaston Bachelard and his idea of approximate knowledge and Ivan Domingues in the definition of the subject builder of knowledge. In this sense we tried to make evident the relationships among document, collection and culture keeping the demiurge subject as a central figure in establishing these concepts. Furthermore, each period is analyzed dealing with a manual of each Archival, Library and Museum Studies area, totaling three per period and nine in all. The purpose of this analysis is to try to find the marks of human collecting expression through professional practices in the areas consolidated in the manuals, which, in their turn, guide how the collections in archives, libraries and museums should be handled and managed. This study also discusses specific issues and similarities for each of the areas under the idea of the collecting act both theoretically and practically. In this sense, it shows a possibility of dialogue transposing the scope of the practices and theories of the areas and thus proposes a disciplinary and cross time debate at the same time.