ABSTRACT Ostensibly an exhibition on a beloved and widely used ‘South African’ cotton textile isishweshwe, the multi-year Isishweshwe Story: Material Women? exhibition at the Iziko Museums’ Slave Lodge in Cape Town, South Africa, provides an interesting portal through which to explore the manifestation, on the museological stage, of the geopolitics of South Africa as a regional actor. This article adopts a (geo)political lens through which to observe South Africa’s post-apartheid nation-making against the backdrop of historically hegemonic regional relations in Southern Africa. Through this discussion, my aim is to invigorate debates on the sociology of heritage and the public museum by shifting the attention away from the usual emphasis on the domestic politics of nation (re)imagining and transformation. Instead, I recast the debate on museums and heritage in transnational, regionalist terms, emphasising the persistence of geopolitical legacies wherein South Africa discursively collapses the boundaries between itself and its regional neighbours even where these are seemingly acknowledged. To this end, this article reorients the extensive scholarship on South African museums towards an interrogation of the subtle geopolitical dimensions of public museum exhibitions. It invites a focus on the politics and asymmetries of geography and how these intersect with and are (re)produced culturally on the museum platform.

中文翻译：

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沿着博物馆学的脉络：对伊西韦什韦故事中（地理）政治遗产的探索：物质女性？

摘要 从表面上看，这是一场关于广受欢迎并广泛使用的“南非”棉纺织品 isishweshwe 的展览，多年的 Isishweshwe 故事：物质女性？南非开普敦 Iziko 博物馆的奴隶旅馆的展览提供了一个有趣的门户，通过它可以探索南非作为区域参与者的地缘政治在博物馆学舞台上的表现。本文采用（地缘）政治视角，在南部非洲历史上霸权的区域关系背景下，观察南非种族隔离后的国家建设。通过这次讨论，我的目标是通过将注意力从通常强调的国家（重新）想象和转型的国内政治转移开来，激发关于遗产社会学和公共博物馆的辩论。反而，我以跨国的、区域主义的术语重新阐述了关于博物馆和遗产的辩论，强调地缘政治遗产的持续存在，其中南非在话语中瓦解了自己与其区域邻国之间的界限，即使这些界限似乎得到了承认。为此，本文将关于南非博物馆的广泛学术重新定位到对公共博物馆展览微妙的地缘政治维度的质疑上。它邀请关注政治和地理的不对称性，以及它们如何与博物馆平台上的文化相交并（再）生产。为此，本文将关于南非博物馆的广泛学术重新定位到对公共博物馆展览微妙的地缘政治维度的质疑上。它邀请关注政治和地理的不对称，以及它们如何与博物馆平台上的文化相交并（再）生产。为此，本文将关于南非博物馆的广泛学术重新定位到对公共博物馆展览微妙的地缘政治维度的质疑上。它邀请关注政治和地理的不对称，以及它们如何与博物馆平台上的文化相交并（再）生产。