Reproductions, cultural capital and museums: aspects of the culture of copies

摘要

The concept of cultural capital is well known in museum studies from pioneeringvisitor research conducted and reported by Pierre Bourdieu in the 1960s. Thispaper examines the concept in the light of the criticism that, whilst it illuminatesthe dynamics of cultural consumption and inequality in advanced capitalistsocieties, its socio-genesis is less well understood. It is argued that thehistorical sociology of fine art reproduction provides an opportunity to (i) enlargeour understanding of its formation and (ii) to explore the cultural character of thecopy and the sociology of the body. The paper draws on Marx's concept ofprimitive accumulation, on Connerton's distinction between incorporated andinscribing practices and on Bourdieu's distinction between three states ofcultural capital