Abstract
This paper examines the roles that museums play as ‘unofficially sacred’ places, underscoring or challenging the religious life of a people and ‘nation’. It focuses on three key questions: (1) Do sub-national and transnational religious formations pose a challenge to or present opportunities for nation-building strategies, and what part do museums play in this struggle? (2) In what ways do re-presentations of religion in museums contest or reinforce religious community and identity? and (3) What challenges do museum displays pose to the understanding of religious meanings? This paper explores these three key questions about the intersection of religion with politics and ideologies, social relations, and cultural interpretations and transformations using an in-depth case study of an exhibition on the Jewish community in Singapore.
Cet article examine les rôles que jouent les musées comme lieux «non officiellement sacrés» soulignant ou s'opposant à la vie religieuse d'un peuple et d'une «nation». Trois grandes questions sont soulevées: (1) Les regroupements religieux de niveaux sous national et transnational constituent-ils un défi ou offrent-ils des perspectives aux stratégies relatives à la formation de la nation, et quels rôles jouent les musées dans cette lutte? (2) De quelles façons les re-présentations de la religion dans les musées concurrencent-elles ou renforcent-elles la collectivité et l'identité religieuses? (3) Quels défis créent les expositions muséologiques pour comprendre les significations religieuses? À partir d'une étude de cas en profondeur qui a été menée sur une exposition portant sur la communauté juive de Singapour, cet article explore ces trois grandes questions qui touchent à la fois à la religion et aux politiques ainsi qu'aux idéologies, aux relations sociales et aux interprétations et transformations culturelles.
Este papel examina el papel jugado por museos como sitios ‘extraoficialmente sagrados’, subrayando o cuestionando la vida religiosa del pueblo y la ‘nación’. Se centra en tres preguntas clave: (1) ¿Las formaciones religiosas subnacionales y transnacionales amenazan las estrategias para la construcción de una nación, o presentan oportunidades?, y ¿cuál es el papel de los museos en esta lucha? (2) ¿Cómo cuestionan o reafirman la comunidad e identidad religiosa las re-presentaciones de la religión en los museos?, y (3) ¿cuáles son las cuestiones planteadas por las exposiciones de museos en cuanto a nuestro entendimiento de significados religiosos? Este papel explora estas tres preguntas sobre la intersección de la religión con la política e ideologías, relaciones sociales e interpretaciones y transformaciones culturales por medio de un estudio de caso exhaustivo de una exposición sobre la comunidad judía en Singapur.
Notes
1 I would like to acknowledge funding support from the National University of Singapore R-109-000-014-112/107 which allowed me to carry out the fieldwork as well as the Australian National University Humanities Research Centre (ANU HRC) Fellowship Award which supported my writing time. I have benefited from comments from a seminar audience at ANU HRC and at the RGS-IBG London Annual Conference in 2003. Additionally, I would like to thank Peter Hopkins and David Howard, convenors of the RGS-IBG panels on geographies of religion, who encouraged submission, and for all their efforts.
2 This paper is based on research that was done in late 1999 and the first half of 2000. An exhibition of Jews in the Singapore History Museum formed the basis of the study. Interviews with the curators, members of the Jewish community who were involved in the exhibition, and Jewish and non-Jewish visitors to the museum were conducted. Participant observation also formed part of the methododology, as I visited the exhibits and observed the visitors. As the Jewish community in Singapore is small, and the exhibition generated a great deal of interest among them, the decision to interview visitors to the museum is justified on the basis that this covered a broad spectrum of the Jewish population in Singapore. Another possible approach would have been to use synagogue lists to generate names though this was not used due to issues of confidentiality.
3 The exhibition changed hands three times in the course of preparation and organization. This material is based on information offered by two of the three curators. The initial curator involved had left the institution and, indeed, Singapore, before the exihibition opened, and by the time I embarked on this study.
4 Several weeks before the exhibition opened, two television programmes on the Jews had been aired: one on Jews in Singapore, and one on Judaism.
5 On 28 January 2002, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced the formation of these Circles. Each electoral constituency, he revealed, would have an IRCC comprising leaders of the various religious and community groups operating in the constituency. The task of the IRCC was to bring the various communities closer through activities organized by the HCs (Singapore Government Press Release, 17 March 2002).
6 The Code on Religious Harmony was proposed by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in September 2002, not as a law, but as a code and an ethos to guide Singaporeans on how they should practise their religion, and accommodate the beliefs of others without imposing one's own practice on others, thus preventing religion from being a source of conflict.
7 The Act was prompted by perceived threats to religious harmony, including aggressive and insensitive proselytizing and the mixing of religion and politics. It gives the Government power to restrain religious leaders and followers from carrying out political activities under the guise of religious activity, creating ill-will and discord between religious groups or carrying out subversive activities.
8 The Council reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs on matters affecting the maintenance of religious harmony that are referred to it by the Minister or by Parliament. The Council also considers and makes recommendations to the Minister on restraining orders referred to the Council by the Minister. Such orders are directed at individuals to restrain them from causing feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility among religious groups, putting them on notice that they should not repeat the act of conduct, and advising that failure to do so would result in prosecution in a court of law.
9 In 1986, relations between Malaysia and Singapore had been strained by the visit to Singapore of Israeli president Chaim Herzog. Malaysia accused Singapore of insensitivity towards a neighbour, given its predominantly Muslim culture. The visit coincided with the disclosure that Malays were not serving in ‘sensitive key positions’ in Singapore's armed forces because the authorities did not want soldiers to be put in a position where their loyalties to the nation might conflict with their emotions and religion.
10 Former Jewish Chief Minister David Marshall once shared a recollection of a child's taunt: ‘Jaudi Jew, brush my shoe, bring it back at half-past two!’ which he described as his ‘first encounter with anti-Semitism’ (Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus School Magazine 1980: x). There are, however, no studies which address the theme in a systematic manner.
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