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ANTH 462
MUSEUM THEORY AND PRACTICE
Course Concept a critical examination of the history and social life of museums and how museums have been studied by anthropologists.
Topics Covered
 origins of the modern museum, from early collecting activities to the development of the museum in the 19th and 20th centuries and into the postmodern present
 relationship between museums and evolutionary ethnology, cultural relativism, physical anthropology, archaeology, natural history
 cultural and political contexts of building ethnographic collections and displays; relationship between museums and plunder
 emergence of the museum as a focus of anthropological and theoretical inquiry and as a subject of ethnography itself
 contemporary role(s) of museums, notably as the museum has become part of the culture industry (e.g., blockbuster exhibitions); political reassessments of museums' "use"
 museums as a venue for identity formation and as an institution with social responsibilities
 legal and ethical issues surrounding the development and use of collections; objects and collections as sources of knowledge and meaning
 relationships between museums and communities (e.g., issues of repatriation, diversity, multiculturalism); are museums recognizing the existence of diverse audiences and can they get those diverse publics to enter the museum?
 how museums have successfully confronted the social and political changes which have caused the collection to be questioned or even returned to a source/descendant community, have asked for it to be democratised, etc.
 opportunities offered by technology
 educational programs, outreach
Required Books
Museum Studies. An Anthology of Contexts , edited by Bettina Carbonell. Blackwell,
2004.
Introduction to Museum Work by G. Ellis Burcaw. Altamira, 1997.
Museums: A Place to Work by Jane R. Glaser with Artemis A. Zenetou. Routledge, 2003.
The Elgin Marbles. Should They Be Returned to Greece? by Christopher Hitchens.
Verso, 1997.
Museum Politics by Timothy Luke. University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums by Carol Duncan. Routledge, 2000.
Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes by Michael Ames. UBC Press, 1992.
Making Representations by Moira G. Simpson. Routledge, 2001.
The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property by Phyllis Mauch Messenger. University of
New Mexico Press, 1999.

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Liberating Culture by Christina F. Kreps. Routledge, 2003.
Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill. Routledge, 1992.
Recommended
Grasping the World. The Idea of the Museum , edited by Donald Preziosi and Claire
Farago (Ashgate, 2004)
Assignments for Graduate Students (each worth one-fourth of final grade)
1. Write a critical analysis of the articles that have appeared in the “Museum
Anthropology” section of
American Anthropologist since the beginning of this section in the journal (1999). Look for themes and controversies. Five pages.
2. Each of you will choose a five-year period (1965-69, 1970-75, 1976-80, 1981-85,
1986-90, 1991-95, 1996-2000, 2001-05). Go through the Sunday “Arts & Leisure” section of The New York Times (you will have to use the microfilms in the Newspaper
Library of the library) and read the reviews of museum exhibitions. Attach photocopies of these museum reviews to your paper. Analyze what topics have had exhibitions devoted to them. Analyze what the reviewers say about the exhibition: what kinds of issues are brought up? Are there patterns you see in exhibitions that share a theme (such as Impressionist art, antiquities, historical personalities, etc.)? Five pages.
3. Borrow the museum exhibition catalogs from the library for any two exhibits on the same theme, such as Islamic art, King Tut, modern art, quilting, Spanish Colonial goldwork, Monet, etc. Critically analyze the catalog to see if it tells you anything about how the exhibition came to be, issues involved, how it was presented to the public, etc.
Write up your findings as notes to yourself and be prepared to discuss in class. How to find exhibition catalogs: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/ then quick search then any word anywhere and type in exhibition catalog and then search (there are thousands of entries so you can choose which you like); you can also do this on amazon.com using
“exhibition catalog” as your prompt and then use the library web site to see if the library has the material you’re intered in.
4. Develop an oral proposal for an exhibition and accompany it with textual explanations, diagrams of the layout of the exhibit, photocopies of the pieces you will exhibit and where they go in the exhibition. Why is this exhibition important? Have there been others treating this material? What social, political and economic realities underwrite your exhibition script? What ethical issues are involved? Where will the exhibit be held? (in an existing museum? in a new facility? in the U.S. or abroad? or a shared exhibit? etc.).
Present in class.
Assignments for Undergraduate Students: Write reading notes for one piece of literature for each class session’s discussion. 30 readings notes are required at 3 points each= 90 points plus 10 points for class participation=100 pts total possible grade.

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SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
Introduction to the course. Major issues in contemporary museum studies.
Students: what do you remember about your first experience in a museum? subsequent museum experience?
Early history of museums. read: Carbonell: pp. 1-70 read : electronic articles: Shelton, Flanders
Early history of museums, continued. read : Hooper-Greenhill
Collecting.
Students: what do you collect? Do you present anything in your home as a display? Do your parents collect or display?
read: electronic articles: Clifford, Bal, Baudrillard recommended: Simon J. Knell, ed., Museums and the Future of Collecting. Second
Edition.
(Ashgate, 2004)
Museums and colonialism. read: Carbonell: pp. 208-215 read: electronic articles: Corbey, Riding ( NYT ), Sherman recommended: Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn, eds. Colonialism and the Object. Empire,
Material Culture and the Museum (Routledge, 1998)
Museums and colonialism: Africa. Exhibiting Africa. read: Carbonell: pp. 92-103, pp. 181-192 read: electronic articles: Schildkrout and Keim; Roberts and Vogel; Cotter; “Protest
Against Display of Africans in a German Zoo,” “Row over German zoo’s Africa show” recommended : Annie E. Coombes. Reinventing Africa. Museums, Material Culture and
Popular Imagination . (Yale University Press, 1994)
Museums and race in the U.S. read: Simpson, pp. 22-29, 90-105 read : electronic articles: Blakey, Bograd and Singleton; Bordewich; Gable and Handler
Museums and race elsewhere. read: Simpson, pp. 15-32 (Black in Britain), 30-34 (Australia) read: electronic articles: Ucko (on Zimbabwe); “Representations of black people in
Brazilian museums” by Myrian Sepúlveda dos Santos
.
Museum and Society 3 (1): 51-65.
[2005]
Museums and colonialism: expeditions and collecting in the Americas. read : electronic articles: Fine-Dare; reprise Corbey (section 1.2: “museums and expeditions”); reprise Blakey; Simpson: pp. 29-30

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“Subverting the venue: a critical exhibition of pre-Columbian objects at Krannert
Art Museum” by Helaine Silverman.
American Anthropologist 106 (4): 732-738. [2004]
( use JSTOR) read:
“The curatorial voice: U.S. institutions exhibit the Ancient Andes” by Karen Wise.
American Anthropologist 107 (2): 257-263. [2005] ( use JSTOR) recommended: Douglas Cole. Captured Heritage. The Scramble for Northwest Coast
Artifacts (University of Oklahoma Press, 1985)
Museums, history and memory. read: Carbonell: pp. 311-361, 375-380 read: electronic articles: Kaplan [Feldman not available because unpublished];
Bunzl (Jewish Museum-Vienna), TCHE (Jewish Museum-Berlin)
OVER THE WEEKEND YOU NEED TO VISIT THE KRANNERT ART MUSEUM AND
THE SPULOCK MUSEUM ON YOUR OWN SO THAT YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN
THE DISCUSSION
Discussion .
KAM and Spurlock are two campus museums. Consider the primary goal or intent of the exhibition, secondary goals (if apparent), what kinds of objects were exhibited, how was the exhibition designed (include lighting, traffic flow, use of exhibition cases, etc.), what kinds of conservation issues were posed by the exhibition, how were objects labeled, what sort of documentation accompanied the exhibition (catalogue, gallery brochures, etc.), was public programming/outreach developed for the exhibition, what kind of attention was given to multicultural issues? What do the various websites of these museums say about them; what information is included? are the websites effective?
Museums and nationalism, part 1. read: Carbonell: pp. 129-130, 231-246, 252-259, 296-306
Museums and nationalism, part 2. Western/Anglo case studies. read:
“Museums, national, postnational and transcultural identities” by
Sharon J.
Macdonald. Museum and Society 1 (1): 1-16. [2003] read:
“Redrawing the boundaries: questioning the geographies of
Britishness at Tate-Britain” by Andy Morris. Museum and Society 1 (3):170-182. [2003] read:
“Museums, Nation and Political History in the Australian National
Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization” by David Dean and Peter E Rider.
Museum and Society 3 (1): 35-50.
[2005] read:
“Nation Building at the Museum of Welsh Life” b y Rhiannon Mason. Museum and
Society 2 (1): 18-34. [2004] read:
“Museums and National Identity” by Fiona McLean.
Museum and Society 3 (1): 1-
4. [2005]
Discussion in class of your results for Assignment #1.
Art museums, part 1.

5 read: Burcaw, pp. 37-39, 73-92 read: Duncan read: “The discipline of pleasure; or, how art history looks at the art museum” by Colin
Trodd. Museum and Society 1 (1): 17-29.
[2003]
Art museums, part 2.
read: Carbonell: pp. 541-555, pp. 414-418, 419-424, p. 430, pp. 431-435 recommended: Carbonell, pp. 436-454, 521-541
Anthropological perspectives on museums, part 1. read: Carbonell: pp. 133-138, 139-142, 159-174, 175-180, 193-207 read: Ames
Anthropological perspectives on museums, part 2. read: Carbonell: pp. 125-142, 175-180, 193-207
Museum politics and controversies, part 1. read: Luke
Museum politics and controversies, part 2. read: Carbonell: pp. 117-122, pp. 208-215 read: electronic articles: Dubin
Museum politics and controversies, part 3: Iraq. read: electronic articles: Davis, Moore
Museums and gender. read: Carbonell: pp. 104-116, pp. 260-272, pp. 483-497 read: Ruth Hoberman (2002), “Women in the British Museum Reading Room during the
Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentietch Centuries: From Quasi- to Counterpublic”
Feminist Studies 28 (3): 489-512
The ethics of collecting cultural property, part 1: various case studies. read: Messenger recommended: "The transatlantic trade in African ancestors" by Monica L. Udvardy,
Linda L. Giles and Hohn B. Mitsanze in American Anthropologist 105 (3): 566-580
[2003] ( use JSTOR)
The ethics of collecting cultural property, part 2: The Elgin Marbles. read: Hitchens read: http://www.museum-security.org/elginmarbles.html http://www.athensguide.com/elginmarbles/ http:www.invgr.com/elginism.htm http://www.invgr.com/melina_mercouri_speech.htm
Discussion in class of your results for Assignment # 2.

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Repatriation, Retentionism. read: Simpson, part 3 read : electronic articles: Emmerich, Darcy
National Museum of the American Indian. read: Simpson, pp. 135-169 read: electronic files about NMAI
Interpretation in the museum. Museums and society. read: Burcaw, part II-chapter 15, part III-chapters 17, 19
Site Museums. read: ON RESERVE: Archaeological Site Museums in Latin America, edited by Helaine
Silverman. (in press, University Press of Florida) – chapters 1-7
Site Museums, continued. read: Archaeological Site Museums in Latin America , chapter 8-14 read: electronic article:
“Two museums, two visions: representing cultural heritage in
Cusco, Peru” by Helaine Silverman.
The SAA Archaeological Record May 2005: 29-32.
Outdoor museums: zoos, gardens, World’s Fairs, etc. read: Burcaw, pp. 27-30 read : electronic article: “The age of aquariums” by Ginger Strand.
Harper’s Magazine
August 2005: 13-19 read: electronic article: The Italian Renaissance Garden by Claudia Lazzaro (Yale
University Press, 1990): Introduction, Nature and Culture in the Garden, Cosmo de’
Medici’s Little Tuscany at Castello read : electronic article: The European Discovery of Indian Flora by Raymond Desmond
(Royal Botanic Gardens and Oxford University Press, 1992): Gardening in India, Indians
Flowers in European Gardens read: electronic article: “The world as marketplace: commodification of the exotic at the
World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893” by Curtis M. Hinsley. In
Exhibiting
Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display , edited by Ivan Karp and Steven
D. Lavine, pp. 344-365. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. read : electronic article: “The Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893” by
Robert W. Rydell, In Representing the Nation: A Reader. Histories, Heritage and
Museums, edited by David Boswell and Jessica Evans, pp. 273-303. Routledge, 1999.
Museums and their future, part 1. read : Burcaw, part I-chapter 3, part III-chapter 22 read: Glaser and Zentou, chapters 2, 10, 11 read: Simpson, pp. 71-80 read: Carbonell: pp. 85-91 recommended: electronic article: Appadurai and Breckenridge
Museums and their future, part 2.

read: Kreps
Museum careers. read: Glaser and Zenetou, chapters 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 read: Burcaw, chapter 20 (bottom p. 194-top p. 200)
Museums and education. read: Burcaw, part II-chapter 16 read: Paris, Hein, and Falk & Dierking
Technology. read: Anderson, Knell, Grinter et al., Rowe and Razdan, Guynup
Museum principles and standards. ICOM (International Council of Museums). read: Glaser and Zenetou, part II read : Burcaw, part III-chapter 21 read: http://www.aam-us.org, http://www.aam-us.org/aamcoe.cfm read: http://www.icom.org recommended: Burcaw, part I-chapters 6-11, and chapter 1 recommended: “Inglorious restorations. Destroying old masterpieces in order to save them” by Eric Scigliano. Harper’s Magazine
August 2005: 61-68.
Discussion of Assignment #3
Museums as entertainment/edutainment, etc. read: electronic articles: Coleman & Elsner, Foley & McPherson read : Burcaw, part II-chapters 13,14
“During a week in or around the Amazon, I found it difficult to escape from the other tourists and enjoy even a semblance of the jungle… This was all white man’s territory and for a truer description of life with the
Hidden Peoples of the Amazon I would recommend both this exhibition and the fascinating book that accompanies it.” (B. Beaumont-Nesbitt, ‘The
Hidden Peoples of the Amazon’,
Arts Review , 24 May 1985, p. 253 [cited in Coombes in Carbonell, p. 243]
Students present their exhibition proposals in class.
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