European Collections

Our Europe collection broadens the conceptual range of the other collections by including many industrially-produced items. In this way, it breaks with the antiquated idea that anthropology focuses on the study of 'primitive' peoples. From this perspective, its existence adds value despite its absence from our permanent exhibition.

Documents indicate that the Museum’s set of reproduction Canarian pintaderas (stamps), currently at the National Archaeological Museum (MAN), have belonged to the Museum since the 19th century; a few other Spanish pieces were added in the 1920s. In the late 1960s, a set of objects collected through fieldwork was added, although this will not be continued. However, in 1990, the collection was considerably increased by the addition of two collections of German origin: those of Gisela Seipoldy (after the death of her husband, Karl-Sieghard Seipoldy) and Wulf Köpke.

The collection’s contents, depending on the way in which the pieces came to form part of it, also affect its character. The vast majority of the pieces can be said to belong to an industrialised Europe, although some came from communities outside that system, reflecting cultures that pre-dated unified industrial production. This is the case, for example, with the Sami pieces from Finland and the items from the Huesca Pyrenees.

In terms of geographical origin, there is also a clear imbalance, with three countries standing out: Germany, Finland and Spain, all notably different. Behind them, the number of objects from other countries is very small and cannot be fairly said to represent the diversity of cultures on the continent. In the case of Spain, the matter is complicated by the existence of a Spanish (and European) collection at the current Costume Museum and Centre for Ethnological Heritage Research; at one time, this institution was part of the MNA. After its administrative separation, the anthropological collection remained at the Costume Museum, and attempts to create a new museum to display it were also unsuccessful.

The fact that the European collection reflects a phase of capitalism, albeit a historical one, implies a radical difference from the reality of other continents present in the MNA’s other collections. Products from Germany in the 1920s and 1940s do not make visible what was being generated at that time by countries with a similar or higher socio-economic level, such as Japan or the United States.