Colonial, Post-Colonial, and Trans-Colonial Museums as Models of the World: Portuguese, British, and Malaysian Examples

Abstract

This article attempts a comparative view of selected museums (in Coimbra, Glasgow, and Kuala Lumpur) in connection with the colonial, post-colonial, and trans-colonial history of two former empires, the British and Portuguese, as well as an area they colonized, Malaysia. The museum as a model of the world reflects successive cultural projects: from building awareness of the empire; through post-colonial changes; to the phase described as trans-colonial, in which the former colony begins to create its own frames of reference in the world and free itself entirely from symbolic dependence on the former colonizer. At each of these stages, exhibition institutions play an important role as a means of recreating and transferring ideas connected with identity, community, and place in the world.