ABSTRACT
Brazil, as most Latin American nations, was invented through the violent process of European colonisation between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its geographical borders were created while a division of the humanity was happening on a global scale. Since the global spread of the international movement for a New museology in the 1980s, museologists acknowledged that the “communities” in the name of which museum professionals spoke have been reclaiming their right to speak on their own behalf by creating their own narratives and redefining the criteria for the preservation of the cultural heritage. A showcase in a museum is a stage for the representation of a certain way of looking at the world, one that is accepted as “universal” and based on the scientific knowledge. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
