Museo Etnologico Missionario Don Bosco

The Museo Etnologico Missionario (MEM) of Colle Don Bosco (Asti) is located within the Salesian complex in the locality of the same name. It preserves the large collections (about 10,000 pieces in total) that the Salesians assembled over roughly a century at their missions. The Salesians were founded as a religious society in 1858 in Turin under the guidance of Don Giovanni Bosco. The Latin American collections are among the oldest, since these were the first regions to be involved in Salesian missionary activity. The first artifacts to be brought to Italy came from Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego—the arrival of the Salesians in Argentina dates to 1875. In the following years many other collections were added as new missions were founded in the regions of the Chaco, Mesoamerica, Amazonia, and the central highlands. The collections include artifacts of the Bororo, Xavante, Tukano, Carajá (Brazil), Yanomami (Venezuela), Shuar (Ecuador), Mapuche, Tehuelche, Pehuenche, Araucanians (Patagonia), Ona, Alakaluf, and Yámana (Tierra del Fuego), as well as some from unknown groups of the Gran Chaco region.

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