Miss World Comes to India

Abstract

Conclusion In conclusion, the Nuveen Forum serves as a moral and strategic lesson. Anthropologists have been involved in studying what makes us human the world over, sometimes combining their moral passions and political activism with research into cultural processes. However, they have sat by the sidelines at home, not raising their voices with equal passion or activist hopes as elsewhere. If they have, they, along with others, have been met by challenges which cut at the heart of intellectual activity. However, the Forum demonstrates that there is need, one could say almost a hunger, for more discourse between scholars and the public in the debate over cultural diversity, a debate which fluctuates between progressive and chiliastic visions. Moreover, people do not seek a discourse which merely re-articulates familiar positions within the debate but one which dares to capture the imagination and, simultaneously, deepen the understanding of the human condition. Therefore, given that pluralism, with its promise and tensions, is a modern day reality, the communication of anthropological research has important implications for a world lost in its own complexity and in need of continual edification to help re-define the contours of modern citizenship. That is the moral lesson. The strategic lesson is that museums reveal tremendous potential as sites and initiators of such discourse. A museum offers its exhibits, collections, community networks, staff and public space enabling anthropologists to take steps, however tentative and experimental, to reach a broad audience. To continue in this spirit of dialogue, enriched by the Conversations at the Nuveen Forum, the Field Museum has developed an exhibit called 'Living Together', to open in November 1997. This exhibit tackles 'cultural diversity' through a crosscomparative understanding of cultural processes. While we hope this exhibit will bring anthropology into the public's line of perception, we also hope that anthropologists will be able to use it to help people visualize culture at work. El Identity, Resource Kit, 1994 passim. 7. National Endowment for the Humanities, A National Conversation Newsletter, Fall 1996; ditto, 'Project Directors' Meeting: Briefing Book', June 1996. 8 Turner, ib., p.409. 9. In 1929, the Field Museum commissioned artist Malvina Hoffman, who studied under Rodin, to create over one hundred sculptures for the exhibit entitled The Races of Mankind. These sculptures, depicting human physical 'types' from around the world, were displayed in the Hall of Man at the Field Museum. In 1968, the Hall of Man was de-installed, with some of the sculptures on display throughout the Museum and the rest in storage. 10 Malvina Hoffman sculptures formed the text of this Conversation