Functions of a modern museum: an experience of a historical and cultural analysis

The author reveals the totality of the functions of a modern museum, while considering each of them in a historical and cultural aspect. The methodological research tools include analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, a systematic approach, and a problem-chronological method. The materials used are the works of foreign and Russian researchers, documents of international organizations (Charter of the International Council of Museums), reports of major museum institutions (the 2015 Report of the Metropolitan Museum, the annual report of the British Museum for 2016), legislative sources (Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Culture). The study consists of several parts: (1) the study of the generally accepted official wording of the term “museum”, (2) the analysis of scientific views on the composition and characteristics of museum functions, (3) the identification of the historical stages in the development of the museum phenomenon and the factors that influenced this process, (4) the description of results and the formulation of conclusions. The author notes that in each of the stages of its evolution, the museum as a sociocultural phenomenon has changed, transformed, acquired new functions, each time finding its niche within the sociocultural environment. The author has established that the museum of the modern type was formed in Europe in the 19th century; in the 20th century. this type became universal. A number of factors played an important role in the institutional design of the museum and its activities: (1) the development of scientific knowledge in the 19th and 20th centuries, (2) the increase in the level of literacy of the population, (3) the industrial and technical revolution of the 19th century, accompanied by rapid changes in living conditions and an irreversible transformation of traditional culture. The author concludes that (1) a museum is a complex, multicomponent cultural phenomenon, a social and cultural institution whose main functions at the present stage are the collection, storage, study and representation of material, (2) the sociocultural transformation of a museum as a phenomenon and a complex of its functions has a centuries-old history that continues at the present time, (3) in addition to the main functions listed above, the museum helps to solve other tasks based on the representation of the material: pedagogical, didactic, ideological. It can act as a base for the development of certain sciences, such as archeology, ethnography, geology, paleontology, etc. In addition, the museum is also an economic object and a tourist attractor.