The collection of the Scarpa Ethnomedicine Museum is organized according to a diachronic criterion, starting from the oldest medical systems to arrive at the current popular traditions, while respecting the chronology of the itineraries carried out by Scarpa from 1938 to 1992.
Some display cases are thematic and deal in detail with specific topics that, in some cases, have become independent disciplines. The exhibition of more than 1500 objects is often complemented by extensive captions, bibliographical references, and references to research conducted, all in an attempt to build an educational exhibit. If the uninitiated visitor can benefit from useful insights to get an idea of what ethnomedicine is, the subject enthusiast will find numerous traces and suggestions to tackle and develop new research themes.
Objects, tools, medicines, photographs (with references to time and place circumstances) document, from A. Scarpa’s viewpoint, the health strategies or individual prophylactic and curative practices adopted by numerous and diverse ethnic groups. This results in a precious testimony of a medical knowledge disappearing, a journey into the historical universe of man sub specie medicinae. Therefore, the primary objective is collection and archiving.
At the same time, the relevance of certain therapeutic solutions is emphasized, drawing specialists’ attention to “active principles” or to simple but effective methods which, however “strange” they may seem, deserve attention, if only because they emerge from centuries of experimental observations.
With this Museum, unique of its kind in the world, A. Scarpa has filled a gap in the knowledge and development of Ethnomedicine, convinced of inducing better knowledge and recognition of the contribution offered by “traditional practices” to the progress of all sciences that strive to alleviate human suffering.
