Reframing the ethnographic museum histories, politics and futures edited by Michael Rowlands, Nick Stanley and Graeme Were

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Rowlands, Michael, 1955- editor.

Stanley, Nick, editor.

Were, Graeme, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnological museums and collections.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

London UCL Press 2025

Summary:

"Since the later part of the twentieth century, ethnographic museums have come under increasing scrutiny, and many have reflected on and changed their presentation as they questioned collections so often made by colonial officials and explorers. Now is a good time to explore whether new developments in display and cultural politics provide a viable future for ethnographic museums. In particular, policies for restitution by colonial era institutions create a changed landscape for ethnographic display both in the countries from which they originate and in former colonising states. Reframing the Ethnographic Museum presents a wide range of cultural settings across the world where ethnographic displays have appeared in their local circumstances. Non-European museum strategies raise new problems but also new solutions. Nationalism has been especially significant in museology in Asia, and in Africa new museum objectives have emerged. They share a problematic future in a digital age when the aura of artefacts is challenged by digital repositories and a public less willing to travel to visit original objects. Authors in this book grapple with the new complexities facing them as curators in the contemporary world"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Part I. The historic legacy of ethnographic museums :

1. The changing politics of ethnographic display: a review / Michael Rowlands, Nick Stanley and Graeme Were

2. Ethnography and art at the British Museum's Museum of Mankind / Ben Burt

3. Success and failure: the life history of Birmingham's 'Gallery 33: A Meeting Ground of Cultures' / Nick Stanley

Part II. Current practices :

4. 'Tervuren remains a place of false memories': on the impossibility of an epistemological rupture at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium) / Boris Wastiau interviewed by Arnaud Lismond-Mertes

5. Ethnographic collections at Queensland Museum: histories and politics of exhibiting in a settler-colony / Chantal Knowles

6. 'We hate ethnography ...': curating beyond description in a post-colonial museum / Sean Mallon

7. The dawn of anthropology and an ethnographic museum in Japan: reconsideration from a post-colonial perspective / Taku Iida

8. Redefining ethnographic museums and ethnographic displays in China: a century-long debate / Luo Pan

Part III. Future directions :

9. Indonesian youth practices in creating a media museum to preserve the sense of nationalism in a digital age / Endah Triastuti

10. Replicas and religious heritage in the ethnographic museum / Ferdinand de Jong

11. Entangled knowledges: re-indigenising biocultural collections at National Museums Scotland / Alison Clark, Shona Coyne, Alistair Paterson and Tiffany Shellam

12. Digital heritage technologies and issues of community and cultural restitution in 'new style' ethnographic museums: a digital update / Michael Rowlands and Graeme Were.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Other Format:

Print version Reframing the ethnographic museum

ISBN:

9781800085862

1800085869

9781800085893

1800085893

OCLC:

1498267267

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access