Contested Representations: Revisiting 'Into the Heart of Africa'

by Butler,Shelly R.

• ISBN13: 9789057005220
• ISBN10: 9057005220
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Butler, a PhD candidate in the department of anthropology at York U., Toronto, Canada, examines the controversy surrounding an exhibit on colonial Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada in 1989-1990. Drawing on anthropological and cultural criticism, she describes how the exhibit became the site of an expansive debate which ultimately included the media, academia, community groups, and many others.

Author Biography

Shelley Ruth Butler is a PhD candidate in the Dept. of Anthropology at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Entering the Debates	1	(14)
Introduction: Reading the Royal Ontario Museum	1	(3)
Coming into the Field	4	(4)
Museum Ethnography	8	(2)
Looking Ahead	10	(2)
Final Notes on the Forum	12	(3)
Into the Heart of Africa and the Status Quo	15	(26)
The Status Quo	15	(1)
Toward a Reflexive Museology	16	(3)
Re-presenting Imperialism: A Personal Walk Through the Exhibit After the Fact	19	(20)
Museums Will Be Museums	39	(2)
Prelude to the Controversy	41	(16)
The Ambiguity of Irony	41	(3)
Power Relations and Public Culture	44	(3)
The Politics of Consultation	47	(10)
The Coalition for the Truth about Africa: Strategies and Challenges	57	(22)
Performing Resistance	57	(2)
The Politics of Contestation	59	(2)
Experiences of Otherness	61	(3)
Democratizing Museums	64	(3)
A Counter Text: The CFTA Pamphlet	67	(4)
Contradictions of Resistance	71	(5)
Racism and Multiculturalism: Articulating a Contradiction	76	(3)
Various Positions: Responses to the Coalition for the Truth about Africa	79	(18)
Beyond Into the Heart of Africa	79	(1)
Authority at/of the ROM	79	(4)
Classroom Confrontations	83	(1)
Media Conclusions: Radicalizing the CFTA	84	(2)
The Academy and Complex Subject Positions	86	(2)
The Black Community: ``Protest and Process''	88	(3)
Victims and Victimization	91	(1)
Other Voices at the ROM	92	(2)
Outcomes	94	(3)
Afterword: The Canonization of Into the Heart of Africa	97	(4)
Appendix: Coalition for the Truth about Africa pamphlet	101	(6)
Notes	107	(10)
References	117	(20)
Index	137