Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement

Description

Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement considers changes that have been taking place in museum anthropology as it has been responding to pressures to be more socially relevant, useful, and accountable to diverse communities. Based on the author’s own research and applied work over the past 30 years, the book gives examples of the wide-ranging work being carried out today in museum anthropology as both an academic, scholarly field and variety of applied, public anthropology. While it examines major trends that characterize our current "age of engagement," the book also critically examines the public role of museums and anthropology in colonial and postcolonial contexts, namely in the US, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. Throughout the book, Kreps questions what purposes and interests museums and anthropology serve in these different times and places. Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement is a valuable resource for readers interested in an historical and comparative study of museums and anthropology, and the forms engagement has taken. It should be especially useful to students and instructors looking for a text that provides in one volume a history of museum anthropology and methods for doing critical, reflexive museum ethnography and collaborative work. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement An Emerging Age of Convergence Articulations of Engagement Museum Anthropology as Cultural Work Bridging Disciplinary Divides Doing Museum Anthropology in a Globalizing and Interconnected World The “New” Museum Ethics Chapter Summaries Notes References 2. Mapping Contemporary Museum Anthropology The Anthropology of Museums and Critical, Reflexive Museology The Return of the Object Collaboration, Indigenization, and Decolonization of Museums Countering Hegemonic Museology Promoting Anthropological Understandings of Diversity On-Going Challenges and Dilemmas The Convergence of Museum Anthropology and Museum Studies Notes References 3. Museum and Applied Anthropology: Shared Histories and Trajectories Museum Anthropology: A History of Continuity in Change The Shifting Status of Anthropology in Museums Museum Anthropology and the Public Mounting Criticism and Anxiety Social Relevance and the Politics of Cultural Representation Forgotten Narratives: Museum Anthropology Prior to the 1980s Native American Activism Applied Anthropology or “Putting Anthropology to Use” Applied Anthropology’s Colonial Legacy The Public Uses and Abuses of Anthropology The Rise of Engaged and Public Anthropology The Convergence of Applied and Museum Anthropology Notes References 4. Museum Anthropology in the Netherlands: Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives Encountering History Founding Narratives The End of Empire and Beginning of Decolonization Changes in Exhibiting Strategies at the Tropenmuseum Reassessing Priorities at the National Museum of Ethnology Creating a Museum Ethics and Culture of Change Redesigning and Restructuring the National Museum of Ethnology “Tropenmuseum for a Change!” Tropenmuseum for a Change—Again: The Creation of the National Museum of World Cultures An Invitation Notes References 5. “Museum Frictions” in Colonial and Postcolonial Indonesia Conflicting Founding Narratives Museum Development in Indonesia: Colonial and Postcolonial Connections Decolonizing Museums in the New Republic Becoming “Museum-Minded” Multi-Sited Museum Ethnography Museum Balanga as a Provincial Museum The Indigenization of Museum Balanga and Local Museology Internal Contradictions and Frictions Community Relations and Engagement Imagining Alternatives Coda Notes References 6. International Collaboration and the Value of Culture and Heritage Initial Fieldwork in Sintang and Genungsitoli Cultural Revitalization and the Dayak Ikat Weaving Project The Museum Pusaka Nias: Narratives of Cultural Loss and Recovery The University of Denver/Indonesia Exchange Program in Museum Training Appropriate Museology: Context-Specific Methodology Appropriate Museology at Museum Pusaka Nias Envisioning a Community Museum for Sintang The Exchange Program as Transnational, Transcultural Reciprocal Collaboration “Transnational, Transcultural, Reciprocal Collaboration” The Value of Museum and Heritage Work “A Blessing in Disguise” Questioning the “Culture for Development” Paradigm A New Museum for Sintang: The Museum Kapuas Raya Reflections on the Values of International Collaboration Notes References 7. Doing Museum Anthropology “At Home” The Re-Emergence of the University Museum Cycles and Returns Smithsonian Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology University Anthropology Museums The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia The University of Denver Museum of Anthropology Museums as Places for Intercultural Dialogue Historical Reckonings Working with Artists Cosmopolitan Museum Anthropology Notes References Index