Around the current use of museums: some reflections on acquisition policies

From notions of museum, cultural heritage, patrimonialization and material culture, the article seeks to raise issues regarding the establishment of collecting policies in museums today, taking into account issues such as the identification and collection of artifacts, at a time when museums already home sometimes quite large collections. Discusses some of the problems arising from the maintenance of such collections in institutions of increasing complexity and proposes some alternatives to form collections, as it considers that demand for these accumulations is socially consistent and can not be stopped.