The Importance of Knowledge of Provenance for the Provenance of Knowledge: The Case of Traditional Costumes Collections in Greece
Curator at Museum of Modern Greek Culture, Thespidos 8, GR-105 58 Athens, Greece
Heritage 2019, 2(1), 708-716; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2010045
Received: 31 January 2019 / Revised: 13 February 2019 / Accepted: 15 February 2019 / Published: 19 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue On Provenance of Knowledge and Documentation: Select Papers from “CIDOC 2018”)
In Greece there are several collections of “traditional costumes”, i.e., garments with a strongly local character, which were in use up to the early 20th century. “Traditional costumes” are directly linked to Modern Greek folk culture: they were formed in its context and they are its most typical and obvious image. They have often been used as a national icon and are popular with people of all ages, who admire them and, on occasions of national celebrations and dance festivals, take pleasure and pride in dressing in replicas of them. Since they have stopped being worn many decades ago, the existing collections are a major source for their study, and they are respectfully referred to by scholars, the public and makers of replicas. The provenance of these collections—the criteria used, the persons involved, the purposes served, etc.—deeply affects the extent and the nature of our knowledge on the objects included in them. Given the inadequate information usually recorded on provenance issues, a thorough search of all potential sources with an aim to put together ‘biographies’ of collections will help to understand the collecting context of the objects and their respective historical and interpretational value.
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Keywords:
provenance; collections; dress history
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MDPI and ACS Style
Papathoma, E. The Importance of Knowledge of Provenance for the Provenance of Knowledge: The Case of Traditional Costumes Collections in Greece. Heritage 2019, 2, 708-716.
AMA Style
Papathoma E. The Importance of Knowledge of Provenance for the Provenance of Knowledge: The Case of Traditional Costumes Collections in Greece. Heritage. 2019; 2(1):708-716.
Chicago/Turabian StylePapathoma, Eleni. 2019. "The Importance of Knowledge of Provenance for the Provenance of Knowledge: The Case of Traditional Costumes Collections in Greece" Heritage 2, no. 1: 708-716.
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