"Oggetti che raccontano storie: le collezioni museografiche italiane e le cosmologie indigene"

The present article suggests a new perspective for the observation and interpretation of the North American Indian objects preserved in Italian museums. Often perceived simply as exotic “things” coming from a long distant past, brought by travelers who went in remote countries facing dangers and perils, these artifacts can be viewed tentatively as objects telling tales or stories. The stories they tell are not only the events of encounters, more or less fortuitous, of individuals coming from different countries and cultures, in a particular historical setting and of their attempts to communicate, to exchange ideas and representations. More significantly, the objects can tell stories about the peoples and individuals who created them and who put into them their own ideas, their own representation of reality and their relationships with invisible realms.