ANCIENT AND MODERN: The Alaska Collections at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Abstract

This article examines a problem common to many museums of art and ethnology: how to exhibit old collections of traditional material culture from peoples who are very much alive and active today. As a case study, it examines the role and participation of the Alaskan Native peoples whose 19th‐century materials are to be exhibited; the design of the exhibition, including the contemporary arts and material cultural traditions in the traveling exhibition; and the itinerary of the exhibit, including the problem of presentations in Native villages. It places this case study within the evolution of museums' functions and stakeholders' expectations, in comparison with other forms of contemporary museums and cultural centers, as aspects of control and interpretation revert more and more into the hands of the source communities.

Tourism and Museums in China

“…We all know the Western (Greek) origins of the word 5 , and the history of the collections that became museums in Europe and the Americas (Graburn 2012a). Museums in China and Japan were directly introduced from European models in the 19 th century (see above) though both nations had their own premodern kinds of collections.…”

“…This is the major contemporary rationale for the existence and funding many museums (Graburn 2012a). The enhancement of the life of the citizens, and chance to explore and learn new and important topics -about nature, science, history, the news.…”

Fuegian Museums and Anthropological Discourses: A Comparison of the Representations of Indigenous Societies from Tierra del Fuego in the Two Southernmost Museums in the World (Museo del Fin del Mundo, Argentina, and Museo Antropológico Martín Gusinde, Chile)

“…Anthropological scripts and discourses are crucial within museum practices insofar as they build interpretations of (pre)history via the materiality of their exhibitions. Such interpretations can present “the others” as ahistorical museum objects, making their agencies invisible in the public space; conversely, they can embrace “otherness” as part of cultural plurality, thus enriching “ourselves.” Museums are thus converted into privileged spaces for staging heritage and fostering narratives that are key founders of identity (Graburn ; Rodriguez de Anca ). Therefore, museum scripts define and manipulate three fundamental topics: the subject that creates the exhibition discourse, the exhibited materials, and the public to whom such discourses and objects are directed (Bourdieu ; Bustamante ; Gil ; Hill ; Varutti ).…”