Ethnological Museum Research Articles

New Constellations of Difference in Europe's 21st‐Century Museumscape

AbstractThis article addresses some of the recent, ongoing, and planned reconfigurations of museums in Europe in light of their implications for the making of cultural difference, diversity, and citizenship. It argues that these are configured not only through the internal content of particular museums but also through divisions of classificatory labor and hierarchies of value between kinds of museums and their locations within cities and within nations—that is, through constellations of difference within museumscapes. It examines this in relation to examples of planned and realized new museums, including of Europe, national history, and world museums. Particular attention is given here to the fate of ethnographic or ethnological museums—museums that have had especially significant places in the coordination of difference and identity—and to the consequences of this within shifting grounds of belonging and cultural citizenship. The article then discusses some potential consequences of museum configuration within one city by looking at plans for reconfiguring Berlin's museumscape, especially in relation to the Humboldt Forum, in reconstructed facades of a former palace in the center of the urban and national museumscape.

Dismantling, Reorganization, and Creation: The Introduction to Ethnology Museums: Culture, Politics, and Institutional Change

This contribution originally appeared in French as the introduction to the edited volume Les musées d’ethnologie: culture, politique et changement institutionnel. It offers a historical and contemporary account of cultural, political, and institutional factors that have reshaped museum anthropology and museums of anthropology in France since the rise of the field and its institutions in the 19th century.

Charting Feminine Universes with Papier-mâché: the Takamatsu-hariko Tradition in the Collections of the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona

L’objectiu d’aquest article es tracar la biografia i mostrar l’us social d’uns petits objectes de paper maixe pertanyents a la tradicio de Takamatsu-hariko (Japo) que es conserven al Museu Etnologic de Barcelona . A traves del seu estudi veurem el paper representatiu i simbolic que tenen dins l’univers(os) femeni japones i podrem accedir a llegendes, tradicions populars i antics costums relacionats amb l’imaginari femeni.

Museums and the Practice of Anthropology: Whose Responsibility is it?

A American anthropology as a profession traces its origins back to museums, its development as a university discipline—and the development of social anthropology as a sub-discipline—is perceived to originate in the early 20th century with Boas and his graduate students, who subsequently founded or inhabited anthropology departments across the United States. Consequently, in the 21st century, teaching social anthropology in museums has commonly been imagined to be limited to the study of collections and caught up in an archaic exercise in “salvage ethnology.” This perspective, however, does not take into account the significant changes that have taken place in society and museums—especially within the relationship between indigenous communities and museums, the introduction of NAGPRA, as well as the rise of self-determination movements, which have led to tribally run cultural resource management programs and museums. Key concepts, such as repatriation, cultural property, material culture, collaborative methodology, and issues surrounding the defining of intellectual property and the control of cultural heritage not only preoccupy museums as institutions, but form the core that defines the sub-discipline of museum anthropology. Anthropology departments that partner with university ethnographic museums in order to offer this kind of teaching environment include the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology, and the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. Programs linked to non-university ethnology museums or collections, such as Columbia University, New York University, and the University College London also have anthropology degree programs that facilitate these firsthand experiences in museums. This last decade, however, has seen a number of university museums and MUSEUMS AND THE PRACTICE OF ANTHROPOLOGY: WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?

Impressions cosmopolites sur une collection muséale de peintures patachitra contemporaines du Bengale, au Portugal

In the contemporary work done by rural patua artisans, an Indian folk art, questions about tradition and innovation are interwoven with what I call “cosmopolitan impressions”. Focusing particularly on the recent development of women as painters and performers of the patua folk craft in an expanded market, through a study of the acquisition of a patachitra collection by the Ethnology Museum in Lisbon, I explore the cosmopolitan impressions in the work of such women from the village of Naya. I will analyse a few threads related to the conditions that lead women to become artisans of an art traditionally associated with men, and suggest that the particular attitude encountered within the patua community in Naya has enabled the more or less successful continuity of their activity up to today. First, I briefly outline their contemporary trajectories, before taking a detailed look at their views on their activity, and then I conclude with an overview of their iconographic themes. The combination of these overlapping threads provides evidence for what I call a “cosmopolitan tradition”.

Seeing hybridity in the anthropology museum: Practices of longing and fetishization

Hybrid colonial objects are potent. Simply stated, hybrid colonial objects in museum contexts are defined as those items that contain material characteristics of both colonizer and the colonized. These objects are constituted in complex colonial contexts, resulting from the adoption and fusing of elements of style, manufacture, material, and meaning from distinct intellectual and cultural legacies, which were themselves hybrids. While hybridized material culture was used alongside more familiar, perhaps non-hybrid objects, archaeologists encounter hybrid colonial objects differently. They seemingly encapsulate in material form a certain lived experience of colonialism, allowing validation that the concepts of hybridity we argue were real and tangible in the past. In this paper, I turn a critical mirror on collections of colonial material from eastern North America at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University to discuss not only how hybrid artifacts from the colonial world were documented, cataloged, and preserved, but also to interrogate the processes of longing and fetishization that impact the collection and interpretations of these objects.

Obituary: Irven DeVore 1934-2014.

American Journal of Physical AnthropologyVolume 156, Issue 4 p. 493-494 Obituary Obituary: Irven DeVore 1934–2014 Peter T. Ellison, Corresponding Author Peter T. Ellison Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MACorrespondence to: Peter T. Ellison, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Peter T. Ellison, Corresponding Author Peter T. Ellison Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MACorrespondence to: Peter T. Ellison, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 07 March 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22737Citations: 1 Photo courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 2015.0.3 (digital file# 99200046). Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume156, Issue4Special Issue: Primate Locomotion Symposium SetApril 2015Pages 493-494 RelatedInformation

A terrifying mimesis: Problems of portraiture and representation in African sculpture (Congo-Kinshasa)

Previous articleNext article No AccessA terrifying mimesis: Problems of portraiture and representation in African sculpture (Congo-Kinshasa)Z. S. StrotherZ. S. Strother Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691030 Views: 185Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Franchising minkisi in Loango: Questions of form and function

Previous articleNext article No AccessFranchising minkisi in Loango: Questions of form and functionWyatt MacGaffeyWyatt MacGaffey Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691031 Views: 153Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Pausanias and the figural decoration of Greek sacred architecture

Previous articleNext article No AccessPausanias and the figural decoration of Greek sacred architectureClemente MarconiClemente Marconi Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691033 Views: 233Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Seeing through stone: Materiality and place in a medieval Scottish pendant reliquary

Previous articleNext article No AccessSeeing through stone: Materiality and place in a medieval Scottish pendant reliquaryKaren OverbeyKaren Overbey Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691037 Views: 805Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Old and new angels—visible/invisible

Next article No AccessEditorialOld and new angels—visible/invisibleFrancesco PellizziFrancesco Pellizzi Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691023 Views: 147Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Crucifixion piety in New Mexico: On the origins and art of St. Librada

Previous articleNext article No AccessCrucifixion piety in New Mexico: On the origins and art of St. LibradaCristina Cruz GonzálezCristina Cruz González Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691028 Views: 130Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Vain Labor(?): Things, strings, and the human condition in the art of Giovanni Baleison

Previous articleNext article No AccessVain Labor(?): Things, strings, and the human condition in the art of Giovanni BaleisonAchim TimmermannAchim Timmermann Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691036 Views: 129Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

An artistic humanity: New positions on art and freedom in the context of Iberian expansion, 1500–1600

Previous articleNext article No AccessLectures, Documents, and DiscussionsAn artistic humanity: New positions on art and freedom in the context of Iberian expansion, 1500–1600Alessandra RussoAlessandra Russo Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691045 Views: 536Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A new ordering of Adena tablets based on a deeper reading of the McKensie Tablet

Previous articleNext article No AccessA new ordering of Adena tablets based on a deeper reading of the McKensie TabletDuncan CaldwellDuncan Caldwell Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 65-662014/2015 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/691029 Views: 76Total views on this site © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

What's New Elsewhere: Impressions from the Berlin Conference

What's New ElsewhereImpressions from the Berlin Conference Paul Horley The 9th International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific (EIPC) dedicated to Cultural and Environmental Dynamics was held at the Ethnological Museum of Dahlem on June 21-26, 2015. The event was organized by Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, HafenCity Universität Hamburg, and the Easter Island Foundation. The organizing committee, headed by Dr. Burkhard Vogt, did a remarkable effort ensuring a smooth flow of the entire event. The choice of the conference site and lodging was just perfect: the Ethnological Museum of Dahlem features one of the most renowned collections of Easter Island artifacts in Europe, many of which date from the historic expedition of Wilhelm Geiseler onboard the HMS Hyäne in 1882. The principal conference hotel, Seminaris, was comfortably located just across the street from the museum. The canopy of linden trees abundantly growing in the area provided much desired shade on sunny days and a natural rain protection during the passing showers. The evening before the conference was heralded by the ice-breaker party held at the Lepsius-Kolleg, located within walking distance from the Seminaris Hotel. The friendly atmosphere and golden rays of the setting sun created a perfect background for discussions over a beer or two; everybody enjoyed meeting friends and seeing colleagues known for years, as well as making new acquaintances. Thus, the base for intense and fruitful scientific communication was firmly established during the first evening. The conference was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Chile in Germany, H.E. Mariano Fernández Amunátegui, followed by the welcome words by Dr. Richard Haas, the Deputy Director of the Ethnological Museum of Dahlem. The Easter Island Foundation's David Rose and Marla Wold addressed the participants with welcome words mentioning the news of the Easter Island Foundation and its successful scholarship programs. The keynote lecture on prehistoric ecological dynamics of Rapa Nui was presented by Dr. Christopher M. Stevenson. The Ethnological Museum kindly provided EIPC 2015 with two large conference halls and ample areas for coffee breaks, which catalyzed numerous important discussions in between the sessions. The scientific program of the conference was rich and diverse, with 15 sessions covering topics related to historical and present-day land use, Rapa Nui cultural identity, new issues of paleobotany, biology and the marine environment, lithic production and techniques, demography and anthropology, studies of moai and ahu, research of Rapa Nui art and artistic trends in small portable sculpture, new developments in rongorongo script studies, the role of museum collections and archives in Rapa Nui studies, cutting-edge technologies for documentation of Easter Island sites and objects, challenges and future of knowledge, education and cultural heritage, improvement of communication strategies, problems and peculiarities of archaeological site management, as well as the impact of tourism on [End Page 67] the fragile cultural heritage of the island. The intense scientific program of the conference was successfully fulfilled, with a total number of presented papers reaching 90. The participants also had the pleasure to see two recent documentaries "Buscando a Isla de Pascua: la película perdida" [Searching for Easter Island: the lost movie] and "Te Kuhane o te Tupuna, el espiritu de los ancestors" [The spirit of the ancestors], both of which attracted significant interest and loud applause. The participants of the conference attended the evening reception at the museum, which was opened with welcome words by Dr. Richard Haas (the Deputy Director of the Ethnological Museum of Dahlem), and Dr. Dorothea Deterts (the Curator of the Pacific and Australian Collection). After the reception, we had a rare privilege to experience a night at the museum – a breathtaking visit to the Oceania exhibition hall opened after regular museum hours only for the participants of EIPC. The permanent exhibition of Easter Island artifacts is magnificent: one of a few surviving painted 'ao paddles, two rapa with beautiful finishes, several well-preserved moai kavakava, moai pa'apa'a, two lizard carvings (moko), a reimiro, wooden pendants (tahonga), clubs carved as stylized eels, 'ua and paoa, and one of the largest surviving rongorongo artifacts (alas, collected in a considerably eroded state). There...

From French Indochina to Paris and back again: The Circulation of Objects, People, and Information, 1900-1932

This article examines the ways in which the processes of collecting, ordering and governing were imbricated both in the metropole and in the colony. Focused on the ethnographic missions carried out by the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro(MET) and by the École Française d’Extrême Orient from 1900 to the 1930s, the paper explores the network of local collectors, the methodological protocols and standards, the collecting practices, and how objects were gathered in the field for displays at the MET in Paris and at the forthcoming ethnological museum at Dalat in French Indochina (what is now Vietnam). The article argues that the circulation of objects, and the information related to those objects, conceives both the metropole and the colony as sites for the production of ethnological knowledge. It also seeks to demonstrate that collecting practices entailed distinct government effects both in metropolitan France and in colonial Indochina.

The Role of Museums in Recovery From Disaster: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) was founded in 1974 as an Inter-University Research Institute housing a museum and graduate school. A museum is more than a place to store intangible and tangible heritage. Along with its responsibility for conserving and passing on cultural materials, it also creates new culture. On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by an earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented proportions. From one month after the disaster, conservation experts from Minpaku participated in the rescue of tangible cultural resources for the period of eight months. At the same time, our disaster response team worked with village residents in damaged localities, assisting their efforts to replace costumes and ornaments for traditional performing arts that had been washed out to sea, or to repair damaged lion heads, to aid in reviving traditional performing arts. We had thought that, in the process of revival and recovery, the re-launch of festivals and traditional performing arts would come later than the construction of the homes and livelihoods of the local people. In one case, Minpaku, based on its research, was able to provide deer antlers for the headdresses needed to revive the deer dance, an intangible cultural heritage of a village in Iwate Prefecture. Village elders worked the antlers we donated, restored the costumes, and within a year were able to produce ten full sets of costumes. Subsequently, the deer dance was performed in village after village to calm the spirits of the dead, ward off evil spirits, and restore the confidence of people afflicted by the disaster. In this way, a traditional performing art contributed to the revival and rebuilding of the affected communities. In another village the repair and restoration of stone lions’ heads and providing aid for refugees from the disaster were further other examples of organized activity carried out in connection with the traditional performing arts. In sum, our experience in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake demonstrates that a museum’s efforts to revive and restore traditional performing arts can do more than sustain folk arts. It can also play a vital role in rebuilding the spirits of communities and localities affected by disasters.

국립민족학박물관의 전시·교육·운영·지역연계프로그램에 관한 조사 연구

This study investigated and analyzed the exhibition, education, operation, and regional linkage program around a case of the National Museum of Ethnology in Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, England, and Japan to suggest necessary directions when constructing the national museum of ethnology of Korea. Interview by visiting the site and email interview were conducted for the investigation and suggestions according to the analysis are as follows. 1) It is necessary for the exhibition program to suggest a comparison exhibition by continent, and to be specific, occupation, style of living, representational culture, religion and view of the world, relation of power, and development culture are essential for the culture contents. 2) The education program needs to be constructed based on the age and level, and specific education program was suggested in this study. 3) Managing library, restaurant, cafe, and museum shop is essential for the operation program, additional service operation was suggested to cover additional financial areas, and professional research workers and professor manpower are necessary. 4) The regional linkage program needs to be composed by considering special qualities of the country and region, and needs to satisfy the expected effect of the local community and local residents.