Interaction Between the Secular and the Religious

being developed by the National History Museum of Latvia. When analyzing the qualitative data
obtained through collecting visual information, and undertaking face-to-face in-depth expert
interviews and observations, the author explains how the curators have positioned religious
objects chronologically in a specific social and political context by using storytelling as the exhibition’s primary interpretative strategy. Compared to the previous period of activity (1945–1990),
when the museum was an institution of Soviet ideology, the National History Museum of Latvia
has currently developed a new paradigm for the evaluation and interpretation of religion and
religious objects. Alongside ethnicity, politics and language, the curators have identified religion
as the most important element in Latvia’s formation process. Religion is interpreted as one of Latvia’s constitutive elements in the exhibition, emphasizing that it was society’s major cohesive force
in the past, influencing the development of national identity and defining the territorial borders
of the Republic of Latvia.