Dos palitos ao fio dental: memórias exiladas e processos de extroversão na biografia de um paliteiro do Museu Carlos Costa Pinto, em Salvador, Bahia

Abstract

The present work presents reflections related to the biography of objects from museological institutions, for that it analyzes the “biographical itineraries” of a silver toothpick holder from the 19th century, safeguarded by the Carlos Costa Pinto Museum, an institution located in the city of Salvador-BA. For the development of this research, various sources were consulted, such as periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries, articles, theses, dissertations, books and documents produced about the object at the Carlos Costa Pinto Museum, in addition to methodologies such as participant observation and conversations with servants and Museum visitors. The conception of the structure of this dissertation was inspired by the method for elaborating the biography of a museum object developed by Samuel Alberti. The method consists of studying the trajectory of the object from its manufacture to its incorporation into a museological collection and in the investigation of how the object's biography was altered from its contact with visitors to museum institutions. The work presents the toothpick holder object, approaching some aspects about its origin, functions, meanings, physical characteristics, and historical-social context. In addition, this dissertation discusses the habit of picking teeth and how this practice influenced the rise and fall of the use of silver toothpick holders. Throughout the text, information is also exposed about the paths that objects such as toothpick holders could have taken in Bahia in the 19th century. The research also presents data specifically related to the trajectory of a toothpick holder at the Carlos Costa Pinto Museum, analyzing information from the moment it became a private collection object to the paths it took when incorporated into the Museum's collection. The work also shows the contributions of the theoreticalmethodological references of the object's biograph.