Anthropology, Museums, and Contemporary Cultural Processes: An Introduction⁻¹

Abstract

The role of ethnographic museums was. to begin with, that of imparting information about foreign cultures. These were, often enough, described as the polar opposites of the civilized places in which ethnographic museums could be found.The museum objects metaphorically represented primitive stages in human development. They appeared like relics even if produced recently. Anthropology, ethnography, or ethnology was the academic discipline which concerned itself with primitive cultures. The ethnographic museum with its harvests of colonial booty therefore seemed like the self-evident medium for conveying anthropological information. Today the preconditions for this constellation have changed. Have museums become inappropriate to communicate anthropological knowledge?KEYWORDS Museums, exhibition strategy, temporality, scientific popularization W hereas anthropology as an academic discipline to an increasing degree defines all human social and cultural life as falling within its domain of research, the definition of what counts as relevant to show in an ethnographic museum remains more constrained. Once a museum was either the self-glorifying institution of national romanticism seeking the roots ofthe nation in an idealized rural background, or an exoticizing museum depicting the colonial other. In territories where indigenous peoples were subjected to European conquest these two categories are today often muddled, signaling new relations between nation-building and indigenousness. Rather than indigenousness being excluded from the imagery of the nation, the two interact in a complex way. Because of its connotations of natural and localized roots, indigenousness offers resources of identity that can be capitalized by the state. As implied by Kelly in this volume, origin and naturalness are still the core themes ofthe ethnographic museum, also shapETHNos, VOL. 65:2 2000 (pp. 157-171)

Measurement and Modeling of Hydrogen Environment–Assisted Cracking of Ultra-High-Strength Steel

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Diverse Knowledges and Contact Zones within the Digital Museum

“…However, the supposed objectivity of the knowledge presented by experts is becoming increasingly subject to scrutiny, as questions of representation and identity, especially those of underrepresented peoples and former subjects of colonialism, are being raised. Increasingly, the authoritative voice of museum exhibitions and catalogs is being contested by those they seek to represent (Karp, Kreamer, and Lavine 1992;Simpson 2001;Clifford 1997), and some are questioning whether ethnographic museums are still an appropriate means for representing culture, particularly given their focus on ''tradition'' and ''past'' (Dahl and Stade 2000). Over the past fifteen years, anthropology and archaeology museums have made extensive efforts to incorporate other voices and conflicting interpretations into their exhibitions (Ames 1992;Karp, Kreamer, and Lavine 1992;Simpson 2001;Herle 2000).…”

Claiming the Terrible Gift–A Post-TRC Investigation in Praxiological Museology

“…The previously unquestioned authority of museums, which conveyed hegemonic historical interpretations to the public through master narratives came under question. The new museology, in contradistinction, promoted shared authority (Frisch 1990, Conrad 2008, multivocality (Misztal 2003, Black 2011, Phillips 2005, Franco 1997 and embraced controversy and complexity (Conrad 2008) through strategies of interpretive dissonance and resistance (Dahl andStade 2002, Roberts 1997). Concomitantly, it promoted a shift toward public history-making, communicating cultural continuities, and enabling cultural empowerment (Conrad 2008, Rosenzweig and Thelan 1998, Allen and Anson, Carson 2008).…”