Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080104
Cristiana Bastos
{"title":"Plantation Memories, Labor Identities, and the Celebration of Heritage","authors":"Cristiana Bastos","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080104","url":null,"abstract":"Plantation museums and memorials play different roles in coming to terms with a past of racialized violence. In this article, I briefly review the academic literature on plantations, refer to the plantation–race nexus, address the critical and acritical uses of plantation memories, discuss modes of musealizing plantations and memorializing labor, and present a community-based museum structure: Hawaii’s Plantation Village. This museum project is consistent with a multiethnic narrative of Hawai‘i, in that it provides both an overview of the plantation experience and a detailed account of the cultural heritage of each national group recruited for the sugar plantations. By providing a sense of historical belonging, a chronology of arrival, and a materialized representation of a lived experience, this museum plays an active and interactive role in the shaping of a collective memory of the plantation era, selecting the more egalitarian aspects of a parallel coexistence rather than the hierarchies, violence, tensions and land appropriation upon which the plantations rested.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78973855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080115
Sheila K. Hoffman
{"title":"Online Exhibitions during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Sheila K. Hoffman","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080115","url":null,"abstract":"In the mid-1990s, when many museums were beginning to take their first hesitant steps toward building online personae, the worry still holding many back was that if a collection or experience were available online, in-person visitation would invariably decline (Anderson 1996; Cody 1997; Wallace 1995). In the 25 years since, that fear has largely been dispelled even as our technical ability to digitally capture and disseminate cultural collections has improved exponentially, even to the point that the online experience in some ways exceeds the in-person experience. Indeed, museums have moved far beyond the ability to show a few images of the major works in a collection, adding opportunities that mirror almost all the offerings of the in-person experience. But even this “Mona Lisa” effect has not driven in-person visitation down. Rather the opposite. Anyone who has elbowed through the crowds at many of the world’s best-known museums can attest to that. Indeed, having been among this ubiquitous press of people, I could not help but think on such occasions that it would take an act of God to reduce the numbers and improve the quality of viewing.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86935582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080105
P. Santos
{"title":"Bringing Slavery into the Light in Postcolonial Portugal","authors":"P. Santos","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080105","url":null,"abstract":"In 2009, in Lagos, Portugal, the remains of 158 bodies of fifteenth-century enslaved Africans were unearthed. In 2016, Lagos City Council inaugurated a slavery-themed exhibition in collaboration with the Portuguese Committee of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project. Through an analysis of the exhibition’s rhetoric and poetics, I argue that the former is yet another instance of Lusotropicalism, a theoretical construct developed by Gilberto Freyre throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s to support the construct of Brazil as a racial democracy, and appropriated by Portugal to support the “benign” character of its colonial system. As a consequence, slavery and Portugal’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, although apparently brought into the light in this exhibition, are in fact hidden in plain sight because both the rhetorical and poetic devices at play conspire to evade addressing the colonial order and its historical consequences, both past and present.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74419830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080112
Laura Osorio Sunnucks, N. Levell, A. Shelton, Motoi Suzuki, Gwyneira Isaac, Diana E. Marsh
{"title":"Interruptions: Challenges and Innovations in Exhibition-Making","authors":"Laura Osorio Sunnucks, N. Levell, A. Shelton, Motoi Suzuki, Gwyneira Isaac, Diana E. Marsh","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080112","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropology and its institutions have come under increased pressure to focus critical attention on the way they produce, steward, and manage cultural knowledge. However, in spite of the discipline’s reflexive turn, many museums remain encumbered by Enlightenment-derived legitimating conventions. Although anthropological critiques and critical museology have not sufficiently disrupted the majority paradigm, certain exhibitionary projects have served to break with established theory and practice. The workshop described in this article takes these nonconforming “interruptions” as a point of departure to consider how paradigm shifts and local museologies can galvanize the museum sector to promote intercultural understanding and dialogue in the context of right-wing populism, systemic racism, and neoliberal culture wars.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79825412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080108
Christina Kreps
{"title":"Afterword","authors":"Christina Kreps","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080108","url":null,"abstract":"Writing at the midpoint of 2020, it has become cliché to say we are living in unprecedented times as the world copes with a confluence of events and challenges near cataclysmic proportions—the COVID-19 pandemic, civic unrest, social and political upheavals, and disrupted economies. In these times, what should be the work of culture, heritage, and musealized spaces and those that study them? I reflect on the articles in the special section, which stand as examples of engaged research and scholarship that seek to make visible troubled histories and presents, and to amplify voices that have for too long been silenced or ignored. Such visibility work surfaces what does and does not have precedent, what has and has not changed, and what is truly different and revolutionary. The articles draws on historical, comparative, and global perspectives to enrich knowledge gained from firsthand observation and engagement with local communities. Using Donna Haraway’s concept of “tentacular thinking,” I argue that we need not only to shed light on difficult chapters in our histories, but also to offer tools for understanding, guidance, and thoughtful actions in the present.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"190 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83456445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080116
Sara Selwood, Lillia McEnaney
{"title":"Exhibition Reviews","authors":"Sara Selwood, Lillia McEnaney","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080116","url":null,"abstract":"Hogarth: Place and Progress, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, 9 October 2019 – 5 January 2020.Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American Art, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1 November 2019–28 February 2021.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82632355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2020-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2020.080114
Michèle Rivet
{"title":"Decolonization and Restitution: Moving Towards a More Holistic and Relational Approach","authors":"Michèle Rivet","doi":"10.3167/armw.2020.080114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2020.080114","url":null,"abstract":"At the twenty-fifth triennial ICOM International General Conference, which took place in Kyoto, Japan, on 1 to 7 September 2019, decolonization and restitution were discussed during a whole afternoon under the heading “Decolonization and Restitution: Moving Towards a More Holistic Perspective and Relational Approach.” Two consecutive sessions with simultaneous translation in English, French, Spanish, and Japanese were attended by almost one thousand people in each session. Speakers for both sessions were representatives of their respective ICOM National Committees. ICOM’s Code of Ethics for Museums, adopted in 1986 at the fifteenth General Conference in Buenos Aires, is recognized worldwide and serves as a guideline in museum work, especially the sixth principle: “Museums work closely with both the communities from which their collections originate and those they serve.”","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83163461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2019-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2019.070108
I. Jacknis
{"title":"Anthropology, Art, and Folklore","authors":"I. Jacknis","doi":"10.3167/armw.2019.070108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2019.070108","url":null,"abstract":"In the great age of museum institutionalization between 1875 and 1925, museums competed to form collections in newly defined object categories. Yet museums were uncertain about what to collect, as the boundaries between art and anthropology and between art and craft were fluid and contested. As a case study, this article traces the tortured fate of a large collection of folk pottery assembled by New York art patron Emily de Forest (1851–1942). After assembling her private collection, Mrs. de Forest encountered difficulties in donating it to the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After becoming part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it finally found a home at the Pennsylvania State Museum of Anthropology. Emily de Forest represents an initial movement in the estheticization of ethnic and folk crafts, an appropriation that has since led to the establishment of specifically defined museums of folk art and craft.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78851315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2019-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2019.070117
Kylie Message, Eleanor Foster, Joanna Cobley, Shi-Kuo Chang, J. Reeve, G. Gassin, Nadia Gush, E. McNaughton, I. Jacknis, S. Campbell
{"title":"Book Review Essays and Reviews","authors":"Kylie Message, Eleanor Foster, Joanna Cobley, Shi-Kuo Chang, J. Reeve, G. Gassin, Nadia Gush, E. McNaughton, I. Jacknis, S. Campbell","doi":"10.3167/armw.2019.070117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2019.070117","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review EssaysMuseum Activism. Robert R. Janes and Richard Sandell, eds. New York: Routledge, 2019.New Conversations about Safeguarding the Future: A Review of Four Books. \u0000- A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace. Lynn Meskell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.\u0000- Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums—And Why They Should Stay There. Tiffany Jenkins. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.\u0000- World Heritage and Sustainable Development: New Directions in World Heritage Management. Peter Bille Larsen and William Logan, eds. New York: Routledge, 2018.\u0000- Safeguarding Intangible Heritage: Practices and Politics. Natsuko Akagawa and Laurajane Smith, eds. New York: Routledge, 2019.\u0000Book ReviewsThe Filipino Primitive: Accumulation and Resistance in the American Museum. Sarita Echavez See. New York: New York University Press, 2017.The Art of Being a World Culture Museum: Futures and Lifeways of Ethnographic Museums in Contemporary Europe. Barbara Plankensteiner, ed. Berlin: Kerber Verlag, 2018.China in Australasia: Cultural Diplomacy and Chinese Arts since the Cold War. James Beattie, Richard Bullen, and Maria Galikowski. London: Routledge, 2019.Women and Museums, 1850–1914: Modernity and the Gendering of Knowledge. Kate Hill. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.Rethinking Research in the Art Museum. Emily Pringle. New York: Routledge, 2019.A Natural History of Beer. Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles: An Anthropological Evaluation of Balinese Textiles in the Mead-Bateson Collection. Urmila Mohan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83488734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Museum WorldsPub Date : 2019-07-01DOI: 10.3167/armw.2019.070110
Bruno Haas, P. Schorch, M. Mel
{"title":"Interpreting a Tatanua Mask","authors":"Bruno Haas, P. Schorch, M. Mel","doi":"10.3167/armw.2019.070110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2019.070110","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces the art historical method of functional deixis into the study of material culture in anthropology. Functional deixis begins with a thorough empirical description of communicative effects—visual and embodied—produced by a material thing on the beholder. It then proceeds by tending to a kind of formalisation that enables us, on the one hand, to sharpen our intuitive reaction to the thing and, on the other, to obtain detailed knowledge about the ways material things produce significance. Here, the method is applied to a tatanua mask originating from present-day Papua New Guinea and currently housed at the Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig, Germany. Based on a thick description, we propose an in-depth interpretation of the mask as a complex response to a fundamental injury, articulating a symbolic expression of grief (left side) with an iconic expression overcoming grief (right side) after a passage through a real word expressed through the front of the mask. In doing so, the article offers a tool to study with rather than a text to read off.","PeriodicalId":40959,"journal":{"name":"Museum Worlds","volume":"445 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76056728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}