Objects and Museum by Leseko Tsehlana
Our lives are bound up with objects. Museums are evidence of our deep preoccupation with the things that surround us, whether natural or the product of human endeavor. Why do we keep stuff, what do we learn from it-and what does our fascination for objects from our past tell us about being human today? Objects bear the marks of how they have been used, giving us access to ideas that may have too fundamental to a person`s life ever to have been written down. Objects give us a special kind of access to the past. They allow us to touch something that was used by people, and thus get a physical feel for their lives. We can learn about past society’s values from what they kept, and what materials they made things from-or about daily life from such simple things as Mokorotlo and weapons. Objects provide a very tangible link between us and people of past societies and illuminate individual lives.