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Anthropology 240: Anthropology
of Museums
Smith College, Fall, 2005
M/W/F 10:00-10:50, Seelye 313
Nancy Marie Mithlo, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Office Hours: Mondays 12:00-2:30pm @ Dewey 16 and by appointment
nmithlo@smith.edu 585-3683
Course Description:
This course critically analyzes how the museum enterprise operates
as a social agent in both reflecting and informing public culture.
The relationship between the development of anthropology as a discipline
and the collection of material culture and human beings from indigenous
populations will be investigated and contemporary practices of self-representation
explored. Students will gain an understanding of historical and
current trends in museum studies and how these movements are informed
by shifting professional and popular standards. The significance
of the object in various cultural contexts will be examined for
evidence of paradigmatic core values. Topics include the art/artifact
debate, racist representations, identity construction, indigenous
curation methods, commodification and consumerism, repatriation,
and contested ideas about authenticity and authority. The relationship
of the museum to a diverse public with often contested agendas will
be explored through class exercises, guest speakers, field trips
and written assignments. This is a theory intensive course.
Assessment: Student
Presentation: (20%); Mid-term Exam (in class 20%); Two Response
Papers (20% each - guidelines will be distributed); Final
Exam (take home 20%).
Each student will be expected to attend
all classes and participate in class discussions. Two or more absences
will be grounds for subtracting points from your overall average.
In addition, students will be required to attend the September 30th
“Hateful Things” lecture at 4:30 in Neilson Library.
As a rule, I do not accept late work.
In the rare and extenuating instance in which I may accept late
work, the paper will be marked down accordingly. Extra credit is
not offered.
Please note that the course
addresses painful and sensitive issues of slavery, racism, sexism
and genocide. In order for the course to be successful, students
will be expected to exercise a high degree of intellectual and emotional
maturity, respect for others and tolerance for diverse opinions.
Required Texts:
The Ones That Are Wanted
by Corinne A. Kratz. Berkeley: U of California P, 2002. ISBN: 0-520-22282-2
[Access electronically via Smith College library catalog].
Repatriation Reader: Who
Owns American Indian Remains? edited by Devon A. Mihesuah, U
of Nebraska P, 2000. ISBN: 0-8032-8264-8 [Access electronically
via Smith College library].
Representations of Slavery:
Race and Ideology in Southern Plantation Museums by Jennifer
L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small. D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
2002. ISBN: 1588340961.
Primitive Art in Civilized
Places by Sally Price. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. ISBN:
0-226-8063-0.
Recommended Texts:
Objects and Others edited
by George Stocking, Jr. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1985. ISBN: 0-299-10324-2.
Exhibiting Cultures: The
Poetics and Politics of Museum Display edited by Karp, Ivan
and Steven D. Levine. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,
1989. ISBN: 1-56098-020-6.
Please note that the course
will heavily utilize the Blackboard internet system for required
and recommended readings, course materials, course discussions and
announcements. Students are required to master the use of this program
and to consult the course site regularly.
Week 1: September
9th: Historical Overview
Introduction
Readings:
Gosden, Chris
and Chantal Knowles. “People, Objects and Colonial Subjects”
in Collecting Colonialism: Material
Culture and Colonial Change (New York: Oxford UP, 2001): 1-25.
Jacknis, Ira. “Franz Boas and Exhibits: On
the Limitations of the Museum Method in Anthropology,” in
Stocking, George W., ed. Objects and Others: Essays on Museums
and Material Culture (Madison: U Wisconsin P, 1985):
75-111.
Lowie, Robert H. “Psychology, Anthropology,
and Race.” American Anthropologist, 25 (Jul.-Sept.,1923):
291-303.
Stocking, George W. “Franz Boas and the Culture
Concept in Historical Perspective.” American Anthropologist,
68
(Aug.,1966):867-882.
Week 2: Sept. 12th,
14th, 16 th: Historical Overview
Readings:
Boas, Franz. “The Principles of Ethnological
Classification,” in A Franz Boas Reader, ed. George
W.
Stocking (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1974): 61-67.
Jackson, Walter. “Melville Herskovits and
the Search for Afro-American Culture,” in Stocking, George
W., ed.
Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others: Essays on Culture and
Personality (Madison: U Wisconsin P, 1986):
95-126.
Radin, Paul. “History of Ethnological Theories.”
American Anthropologist, 31(Jan.- Mar., 1929): 9-33.
Steiner, Christopher B. “Art/Anthropology/Museums:
Revulsions and Revolutions” in MacClancy, Jeremy, ed.
Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines (Chicago:U
Chicago P, 2002): 399-417.
Film: Shackles of Tradition by Singer,
Andre and Bruce
Dakowski. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities &
Sciences, 1990.
Week 3: Sept. 19th,
21st, 23rd: Hateful Things: Issues of Representation
Readings:
Abrahams,
Yvette. “Race and Racism: Sarah Bartmann’s Life in a
Historical Context (1788/1789-1815).” Herstory
Project for EUFHR, Cape Town, 2004.
Chamley, Santorri. “All Because of a Pair
of African Buttocks.” New African (Sept., 2000):
41-44.
Gilman, Sander L. “The Life and Times of
Sara Baartman: The Hottentot Venus.” American Historical
Review, 105
(Dec.,2000): 1849.
Quereshi, Sadiah. “Displaying Sara Baartman,
The ‘Hottentot Venus.’” History of Science,
42 (June 2004): 233-257.
Film: The
Life and Times of Sara Baartman by Maseko, Zola. San Francisco:
California Newsreel, 1998.
Week 4: Sept. 26th,
28th, 30th: Hateful Things: Issues of Representation
Readings:
Eichstedt,
Jennifer L. and Stephen Small, Representations of Slavery: Race
and Ideology in Southern Plantation
Museums. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002.
Film: Jim
Crow’s Museum by Pilgrim, David and Clayton Rye. Big
Rapids, MI: Feris State University, Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia,
2004.
Friday, Sept. 30th:
Guest Lecturer: David Pilgrim, Curator, Ferris State University
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia.
Week 5: October 3rd,
5th, 7th: Hateful Things: Issues of Representation
Readings:
Dowd-Hall,
Jacqueline. “The Mind that Burns in Each Body: Women, Rape,
and Racial Violence” in Snitow, Ann, et al
eds. Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality (New York:
Monthly Review Press, 1983): 328-349.
Litwack, Leon. “Hellhounds,” in James
Allen, et al, eds. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in
America
(Twin Palms, CA: Twin Palms, 2005): 8-37.
Postal, Danny. “The Awful Truth: A Photography
Exhibition Unearths the Painful History of Lynching in America.”
Chronicle of Higher Education (July 12, 2002): A3.
Vendrys, Margaret Rose. “Hanging on Their
Walls: An Art Commentary on Lynching; The Forgotten 1935 Art
Exhibit,” in Fossett, Judith Jackson, ed. Race Consciousness:
African-American Studies for the New Century (New York: NYU
Press, 1997): 153-176.
Films: Ethnic
Notions by Riggs, Marlon. San Francisco:
California Newsreel, Signifying Works, [1986],
2004.
Strange Fruit by Katz,
Joel. San Francisco: California Newsreel, 2002.
Friday, Oct. 7th: Paper #1 Due at the beginning
of class.
Week 6: Oct.
(M, 10th: No Class: Fall Recess); 12th, 14th: Midterm Period
Wednesday, Oct. 12th:
Media Workshop for student presentations; Guidelines
distributed
Friday, Oct. 14th: Midterm
Exam (in class)
Reading:
Kennedy, Randy.
“With Irreverence and an iPod: Recreating
the Museum Tour.” The New York Times (Saturday, May
28,
2005): A1.
Week 7: Oct. 17th, 19th,
21st: Photographs
Readings:
Edwards, Elizabeth.
“Rethinking Photography in the Ethnographic Museum,”
in Raw Histories: Photographs,
Anthropology and Museums (Oxford: Berg, 2001): 183-209.
Kratz, Corinne. The Ones That Are Wanted.
Berkeley: U of California P, 2002.
Withers, Josephine. “Feminist Performance
Art: Performing, Discovering, Transforming Ourselves,” in
Broude, Norma
and Mary D. Garrard, eds. The Power of Feminist Art: The American
Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994): 158-173.
Wright, Christopher. “Supple Bodies: The
Papua New Guinea Photographs of Captain Francis R. Barton, 1899-1907,”
in Peterson, Nicholas and Christopher Pinney, eds. Photography’s
Other Histories (Durham: Duke UP, 2003):
146-169.
Films: Coming
to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian: A Film
by Makepeace, Anne. Oley,
PA: Bullfrog Films, 2000.
Trance and Dance in
Bali by Mead, Margaret. Photography by Gregory Bateson and Jane
Belo. University Park, PA: Audio-Visual Services, 1991.
Friday, Oct. 21st: Guest Lecturer: Alona Wilson,
Curatorial Assistant, Smith College Museum of Art, “Beyond
the Performance: Ana Mendieta in the 1970’s.”
Week 8: Oct. 24th, 26th,
28th: Indigenous Property Rights: Who Owns Native Culture?
Readings:
Mihesuah,
Devon, ed. Repatriation Reader: Who Owns Indian Remains? Lincoln:
U Nebraska P, 2000.
Berlo, Janet Catherine and Ruth B. Phillips. “Our
Museum
World Turned Upside Down: Re-presenting Native American
Arts.” Art Bulletin, LXXVII (Mar., 1995): 6-23.
Film: The
Return of Sara Baartman by Maseko, Zola.
Brooklyn, NY: First Run/Icarus Films, 2003.
Week 9: Oct. 31st),
November 2nd, 4th: Indigenous Property Rights: Who Owns Native
Culture?
Readings:
Dawes, Kwame.
“Re-appropriating Cultural Appropriation,” in Ziff,
Bruce and Pratina V. Rao, eds. Borrowed Power:
Essays on Cultural Appropriation (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
UP, 1997): 109-121.
Price, Sally. Primitive Art in Civilized Places
(Chicago: U Chicago P, 1989).
Myers, Fred. “Ontologies of the Image and
Economies of Exchange.” American Ethnologist, 31
(1, 2004):5-20.
Film: Box
of Treasures by Olin, Chuck and U’mista Cultural Center.
Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational
Resources, 1983.
Week 10: Nov. 7th, 9th,
11th: Interpretation: Theory
Readings:
Appadurai,
Arjun. “Commodities and the Politics of Value,” in Pearce,
Susan M., ed. Interpreting Objects and
Collections (London: Routledge): 76-91.
Clifford, James. “Histories of the Tribal
and the Modern,” in The Predicament of Culture (Cambridge:
Harvard UP,
1988): 189-214.
Geertz, Clifford. “Thick Description: Toward
an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in The Interpretation
Of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973): 3-30.
Visweswaran, Kamala. “Histories of Feminist
Ethnography.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 26 (1997):
591-621.
Case Studies:
Hurston, Zora
Neale. Mules and Men. Bloomington: Indiana UP, [1935],
1978. ***pages to be determined***
Cruikshank, Julie. “Oral Tradition and Material
Culture: Multiplying Meanings of ‘Words’ and ‘Things.’
Anthropology Today, 8 (Jun., 1992): 5-9.
Week 11: Nov. 14th,
16th, 18th: Interpretation: Method
Readings:
Bouquet, Mary.
“Thinking and Doing Otherwise: Anthropological Theory in Exhibitionary
Practice,” in
Carbonell, Bettina Messias, ed. Museum Studies: An Anthology
of Contexts (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004):193-
207.
Coombs, Annie E. “Museums and the Formation
of National and Cultural Identity,” in Museum Studies:
An Anthology of
Contexts, pp. 231-246.
Duncan, Carol. “From the Princely Gallery
to the Public Art Museum,” in Grasping the World: The
Idea of the Museum
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004): 250-277.
Karp, Ivan and Fred Wilson. “Constructing
the Spectacle of Culture in Museums,” in Thinking About
Exhibitions
(London: Routledge, 1996): 251-267.
Ramirez, Mari Carmen. “Brokering Identities:
Art Curators and the Politics of Cultural Representation,”
in
Thinking About Exhibitions, pp. 21-38.
Vogel, Susan. Art/artifact: African Art, Western
Eyes. Exhibition: Henry Art Gallery (Seattle: U of
Washington, 1989).
Film: Bronislaw
Malinowski: Off the Verandah by Dakowski, Bruce. Princeton,
NJ: Films for the Humanities, 1990.
Week 12: Nov. 21st;
(Nov. 23rd & 25th: No Classes: Thanksgiving Break):Interpretation:
Method
Case Studies:
Malinowski,
Bronislaw. The Kula: A Centennial Exhibition (Berkeley:
U California P, 1985): 12-19; 65-82.
Kratz, Corinne. The Ones That Are Wanted. Berkeley: U California
P, 2002.
Week 13: Nov. 28th,
30th, December 2nd: Consumer Culture
Readings:
Belk, Russell. “Collectors and Collecting,”
in Interpreting Objects and Collections, pp. 317-326.
Douglas, Mary and Baron Isherwood. “The Uses
of Goods,” in The World of Goods (New York: Basic
Books, Inc., 1979):
56-70.
Levi-Strauss, Claude. “Father Christmas Executed”
in Miller, Daniel, ed. Unwrapping Christmas (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1993): 38-51.
Miller, Daniel. “Christmas Against Materialism
in Trinidad,” in Unwrapping Christmas, pp. 134-153.
Batkin, Jonathan. “Tourism is Overrated:
Pueblo Pottery and
the Early Curio Trade,” in Phillips, Ruth B. and Christoper
B. Steiner, eds. Unpacking Culture: Art and
Commodity in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds (Berkeley: U
California P, 1999): 282-297.
Film: In
and Out of Africa by Baare, Gabai, et al. Los
Angeles: Center for Visual Anthropology, 1992.
Friday, Dec. 2nd: Paper
#2 Due in my box in Dewey by 5pm
Week 14: Dec. 5th, 7th,
9th: On Collecting: Art & Culture
Dec. 7th & 9th:
Student Presentations
Readings:
Appadurai,
Arjun and Carol A. Breckenridge. “Museums are Good to Think:
Heritage on View in India,” in Karp,
Ivan, et al eds. Museums and Communities: The Politics
of Public Culture (Smithsonian Institution Press,
1991): 34-55.
Clifford, James. “Four Northwest Coast Museums:
Travel Reflections,” in Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics
and
Politics of Museum Display (Smithsonian Institution Press,
1991): 212-254.
Duncan, Carol. “Art Museums and the Rituals
of Citizenship,” in Interpreting Objects and Collections,
pp.279-286.
Friday, Dec. 9th: Final Exam Guidelines (take home)
distributed in class.
Week 15: Dec. 12th; (14th & 16th: No Class; Finals Study
Begins):
Final Exam Preparation
Reading:
Ames, Michael
M. “Cannibal Tours, Glass Boxes and the Politics of Interpretation,”
in Cannibal Tours and
Glass Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums (Vancouver: U British
Columbia P, 1992):139-150.
Film: Cannibal
Tours by O’Rourke, Dennis. Los Angeles:
Direct Cinema Ltd, 1987.
Final Exams are due
by Wednesday December 21st at 5:00 PM and may be delivered
hard-copy to my box in Dewey Hall. |