Museums, Anthropology and Imperial Exchange

Amiria Henare explores the role of material cultural research in anthropology and related disciplines from the late eighteenth century to the present.

Amiria Henare (Author)

9780521835916, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 June 2005

344 pages, 47 b/w illus.
25.4 x 18 x 2.7 cm, 0.847 kg

"Rarely do books about material culture succeed in as many ways as this one, with its thoughtfully conducted research, creative theoretical insights, and clear, heartfelt prose"
Miriam Kahn, The International History Review

Amiria Henare explores the role of material cultural research in anthropology and related disciplines from the late eighteenth century to the present. Grounded in a historical ethnography of museums in New Zealand and Scotland, the work traces the movement of artefacts now held in contemporary collections through space and time, demonstrating how and why things were bought, exchanged and stolen and carried across oceans to arrive in present-day museums. The collecting of artefacts and their study both in museums and the the field are emphasised as key strategies in the development of anthropological thought, While much late twentieth-century writing in anthropology has employed analytic models and methodologies derived from the study of language, this work belongs to a growing body of research drawing on the epistemological potency of artefacts, the distinctive insights afforded by engagement with material things.

1. String games
2. Objects of exploration
3. Objects of knowledge
4. Improvement and imperial exchange
5. Colonial baggage
6. 'Storehouses of science'
7. Trophies and souvenirs
8. Things and words
9. Words and things
Appendix
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], History of ideas [JFCX], Museology & heritage studies [GM], History of art / art & design styles [AC]