Museum Studies in Anthropology

Abstract

This course presents “the museum” as an object of ethnographic inquiry, examining it as a social institution embedded within a larger field of cultural heritage that is perpetually under negotiation. We reflect on how museum principles of classification and practices of collection and exhibition have influenced how knowledge has been formed, presented and represented. This class examines the role of museums as significant social actors in broadly anthropological debates around power, materiality, value, representation, culture, circulation, history, and nationalism. The museum is not simply a repository of arts, cultures, histories, or scientific knowledges, but also a site of creativity within a complex field of social relations.