Musée de l'Homme | |
 Inscription above the museum | |
  Location within Paris | |
| Established | 1937 (1937) |
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| Location | 17 Place du Trocadéro, Paris, France |
| Coordinates | 48°51′46″N2°17′19″E / 48.8627°N 2.2886°E /48.8627; 2.2886 |
| Type | Anthropology museum |
| Public transit access | Trocadéro   |
| Website | http://www.museedelhomme.fr/ |
| Muséum national d'histoire naturelle network | |
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TheMusée de l'Homme (French pronunciation:[myzedəlɔm]; literally "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is ananthropology museum inParis,France. It was established in 1937 byPaul Rivet for the 1937Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. It is the descendant of theMusée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, founded in 1878. The Musée de l'Homme is a research center under the authority of various ministries, and it groups several entities from theCNRS. The Musée de l'Homme is one of the seven departments of theMuséum national d'histoire naturelle. The Musée de l'Homme occupies most of the Passy wing of thePalais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement. The vast majority of its collection was transferred to theQuai Branly museum.[1]
The Musée de l'Homme has inherited items from historical collections created as early as the 16th century, fromcabinets of curiosities, and the Royal Cabinet. These collections were enriched during the 19th century, and are still added to today. The aim is to gather in one site everything which defines thehuman being: in terms ofevolution (prehistory), of unity and diversity (anthropology), and of cultural and social expression (ethnology).
The majority of the "ethnographic exhibition" from theMusée de l'Armée of theInvalides, as it was then called, is composed of dummies representing people from Frenchcolonies, along with weapons and equipment. This material was transferred to the museum in 1910 and 1917.[2] Photos of theMoroccan population, taken byClérambault, were also displayed there.
The Musée de l'Homme is the direct descendant of theMusée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, which was founded in theTrocadéro Palace in 1828.
In 1928,Paul Rivet became the new director of the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro. He oversaw a major modernization and reorganization project, and had the museum linked to theMuséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.[3]
In 1935, the Trocadéro Palace was demolished and replaced by thePalais de Chaillot, built for the1937 World's Fair. The museum reopened in the Palais as the Musée de l'Homme.
Several members of the Musée de l'Homme, including its founderPaul Rivet, formed aresistance group during theGerman occupation ofParis inWorld War II. When Nazi tanks rolled into the city on 14 June 1940, Rivet had a French translation of Rudyard's Kipling poemIf tacked to the museum's door in a gesture of defiance.[4]
In 1996, French President Jacques Chirac announced plans to create a new museum that would combine key collections from the Musée de l'Homme andMusée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. Curators at the Musée de l'Homme fought vigorously to retain the collections at their museum, but were unsuccessful.[5] These collections went to the new museum, theMusée du quai Branly, which opened in 2006.
In 2008, the French government committed to the refurbishment of the Musée de l’Homme.[6] The museum was closed for renovations in 2009, and reopened in October 2015.The total amount of money appropriated for the renovation process was 52 million Euros.[7]
In March 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron committed to the return of three Sakalava skulls to Madagascar, previously housed at the Musée de l'Homme.[8]
The museum's original purpose was to gather in one place all that can define humanity: its evolution, its unity and its variety, and its cultural and social expression.
The removal of the Musée de l'Homme's ethnographic collections to the new Musée du quai Branly andMUCEM broke with its original mission. This change aroused many debates concerning the curatorial choices of the new structure. The permanent exhibition of the Musée de l'Homme counted more than 15,000 artifacts, reflecting artistic, technical and cultural treasures from five continents. Quai Branly, however, holds only 3500 artifacts, presented without cultural contextualization, chosen for their aesthetic qualities and their "exotic" origins (Africa, Oceania, Americas) and not on educational value. European ethnographical collections are going to be exhibited at MUCEM, and critics believe it is creating an unjustified discontinuity between human cultures.
This situation led the Musée de l'Homme to review its mission. In 2015 it reaffirmed Paul Rivet's original vision for a laboratory museum.[9] Combining biological, social and cultural approaches, the museum today focuses on the evolution of humans and human societies in keeping with Rivet's view that "Humanity is one and indivisible, not only in space, but also in time."[9]
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