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MUSEO E HISTORIA:DEL OBJETO A LOS DISCURSOS Y PRÁCTICAS.Gloria Paz Núñez Rodríguez y Luis Alegría - ChileAbstractOur proposal is to talk about the museum as a space of patrimonial construction, as init objects acquire a special value. Such value is the result of the process of becomingpatrimony, that is, the moment in which they are given a symbolic value thattransforms them in a legitimate testimony of the past . Patrimony (heritage) isconsidered as “the group of values, credence and goods”, socially and historicallyrenowned (re-signified), a fact that allows the construction of a new reality.The Museum is a cultural institution that takes part of a major social space that is calledthe patrimonial field, that is, a space structured as a system of relations in competitionand conflict between groups. In this space, the museum is a central institution, as anagent that produces patrimony and, therefore, it is not considered as a neutral space.A basic element of the objects that constitute a museum collection is thedocumentation they possess, that allows different readings on such objects. Besides, ittransforms them: on one hand, in documents of society as they carry information aboutits history, and on the other hand in monuments, as its re-invention at the interior of themuseum obeys to a discourse that commemorates this past.Museology not only corresponds to museum science but, in a wider sense, to a scienceof all which is museable, that is to say, patrimony. But a study of museums andpatrimony corresponds to a study of society in general, since the symbolic dimensionthat they represent also constitutes part of that reality. Documentation is a basicelement, not only because of the information about the objects itself, but also becauseof the interventions that have been done over them, giving account of patrimonialdiscourses and practices in a major frame of society development.The aim of our research at the Museo Histórico Nacional is framed upon updating ahistory of the museum and its collections, presenting the museum as a space ofcultural production and, as such, identifying its contribution to the construction ourcountry´s cultural patrimony.1. El Museo como lugar de construcción de patrimonio.Hablar del museo como espacio de construcción de patrimonio nos propone unanueva mirada sobre su función social. Dicha mirada tendrá como acento comprendertanto al museo y al patrimonio como categorías en proceso, además de asumir unenfoque crítico de sus funciones históricas. “El museo ha ejercido un determinado rolsocial a lo largo de su historia, reflejando el poder de la iglesia o del Estado en unoscasos, ofreciendo la posibilidad de investigación y estudio a los medios universitarios oescolares, en otros o mostrándose sencillamente como espejo de variedad deintereses -locales, colectivos, individuales…-, en una sociedad que en ciertosmomentos simbolizaba y consagraba la magnificencia y el estatus social delcoleccionista, y que erigía el museo como un monumento glorificador de la ciudad”(Fernández, 1999: 142).378