Abstract: The Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP), Portugal, houses collections from naturalia to culturalia, gathered in the past 160 years in Portugal and abroad. These collections were constituted in a knowledge production institution – the university – but their scientific work frame changed through time. Nowadays, the existence of diverse perspectives on objects and collections in a museum is regarded as a key guiding point, as opposed to the prevalent European point of view. Semiotics stresses the importance of words and their significance. The value of such words and their significance can change through time and can be questioned. The language and narratives in our databases are, frequently, outdated and misapplied. The frame of knowledge that was used since the late 19th century has not been looked at in a critical way, nor updated in the databases. Technology enables the association of multiple perspectives and narratives to the objects and collections that are housed in our museums. Nowadays, databases allow the association of past research and its context along with resignification. But, in order to insert different perspectives and create new knowledge, it is necessary to review the collections by rethinking the current standards, like controlled vocabulary. New database software that registers and relates all levels of information, since provenance to previous research and interpretations, is of the utmost importance to correctly incorporate different narratives. The case presented here refers to MHNC-UP ethnographic collections, and the ongoing process of data revision. Some of the premises of this work include: identifying and updating of out of date and colonial terminology; and searching and associating the original designation of objects, in the language of the provenance communities. The database review aims to strengthen the connection between the data and the object, allowing the emergence of different narratives.
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