Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era

by Simpson,Moira G.

• ISBN13: 9780415067850
• ISBN10: 0415067855
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781135632717
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-12-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Moira Simpson examines how cultures have been exhibited in western museums in the past and how practices are now changing. Indigenous people, for example, Native American and Australian Aboriginal groups, are demanding that sacred objects and human remains be removed from display and repatriated from western museums. Museums are receiving criticism from ethnic groupds dissatisfied with the interpretation of their cultures and exclusion from the interpretive process, illustrated by the response to a number of controversial exhibitions in recent years. This book looks at the way western museums are reacting to these pressures by developing policies and practices to address issues of cultural representations in museums and form new relationships with communities. It also examines the growth of museums and cultural centers established by communities who have taken control of the interpretative process and developed community-focused exhibitions and activities which challenge the traditional role that museumshave played.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	viii	(2)
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	1	(6)
Part 1 Cultural reflections	7	(64)
1 History revisited	15	(20)
2 The controversy continues	35	(16)
3 Voices of authorship	51	(20)
Part 2 The `new' museum paradigm	71	(100)
4 Remembering the homeland	81	(26)
5 From treasure house to museum...and back	107	(28)
6 Native American museums and cultural centres	135	(36)
Part 3 Human remains and cultural property: the politics of control	171	(76)
7 Bones of contention: human remains in museum collections	173	(18)
8 Cultural artefacts: a question of ownership	191	(24)
9 The repatriation debate: an international issue	215	(32)
Conclusion: turning the page	247	(20)
Appendix: interviews	267	(4)
Bibliography	271	(17)
Government legislation	288	(1)
Index	289