Unpacking the Collection
Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum
Editors: Byrne, S., Clarke, A., Harrison, R., Torrence, R. (Eds.)
Free Preview- Provides a new theoretical framework for examining material culture
- Includes international and cross-cultural case studies
- Features indigenous cultures not often the subject of mainstream research
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- About this Textbook
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Museum collections are often perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind glass cases. By focusing on the dynamic histories of museum collections, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations. Over time and across space the interactions between these artefacts and the people and institutions who made, traded, collected, researched and exhibited them have generated complex networks of material and social agency.
In this innovative volume, the contributors draw on a broad range of source materials to explore the cross-cultural interactions which have created museum collections. These case studies contribute significantly to the development of new theoretical frameworks to examine broader questions of materiality, agency, and identity in the past and present.
Grounded in case studies from individual objects and museum collections from North America, Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, this truly international volume juxtaposes historical, geographical, and cross-cultural studies.
This work will be of great interest to archaeologists and anthropologists studying material culture, as well as researchers in museum studies and cultural heritage management.
- Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Networks, Agents and Objects: Frameworks for Unpacking Museum Collections
Pages 3-26
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“Suitable for Decoration of Halls and Billiard Rooms”: Finding Indigenous Agency in Historic Auction and Sale Catalogues
Pages 29-53
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Consuming Colonialism: Curio Dealers’ Catalogues, Souvenir Objects and Indigenous Agency in Oceania
Pages 55-82
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Plumes, Pipes and Valuables: The Papuan Artefact-Trade in Southwest New Guinea, 1845–1888
Pages 83-115
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Donors, Loaners, Dealers and Swappers: The Relationship behind the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Pages 119-140
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Unpacking the Collection
- Book Subtitle
- Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum
- Editors
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- Sarah Byrne
- Anne Clarke
- Rodney Harrison
- Robin Torrence
- Series Title
- One World Archaeology
- Copyright
- 2011
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag New York
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-4419-8222-3
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-1-4419-8222-3
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-1-4419-8221-6
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-1-4614-2917-3
- Series ISSN
- 2625-8641
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VIII, 342
- Number of Illustrations
- 36 b/w illustrations, 47 illustrations in colour
- Topics
