Ivan Grinko in “Etno dialogi” proposes viewing the museum through the concept of totemism

Ivan Grinko of the Moscow Agency for the Organisation of Leisure and Tourism offers, in his article in "Ethno Dialogues", a rather original view of museum totemism. Let us replace the word "totem" in the definition with the word "museum", and it really does all add up. A museum is a class of material objects towards which the savage feels a superstitious respect, believing that between himself and every member of the class there exists an intimate and quite special bond. And the savage, of course, stands for any visitor to a museum. Moreover, one can go further and find the definition of a museum in the extended description of totemism as a complex social system: "a view of nature and life, of the universe and man, a view that characterises the mythology of the aborigines and influences their social relations, feeds their rites and binds the aborigines to the past". The aborigines are, naturally, you and I. A splendid exercise