Behind the Scenes: Museums and Selective Criticism

Abstract

A recent upsurge of interest in representational politics has led to criticism of exhibitions and museums in the ethnographic/anthropological field. It is argued that this development has been positive to the extent that it recognizes museological practice to be part of a system of power and authority. But some criticism has been unhelpful in so far as it has underestimated the complexity of what museums do and of wider social implications of evidence-based efforts in pubUc education. Since museological criticism is as much a product of its context as are museums themselves, produtive discussion calis for greater reflexivity rather than less.