Research Catalog

Title

Museums and the making of "ourselves" : the role of objects in national identity / edited by Flora E.S. Kaplan.

Publication

London ; New York : Leicester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by St. Martin's Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Kaplan, Flora S.

Description

xi, 430 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• In exploring the relationship between "ourselves" and material culture this volume places museums in an historical perspective, and as part of a political process of democratisation. The spread of museums in the 19th century was stimulated by burgeoning science and capitalism in the West; and into the 20th century by industrialisation the eventual demise of colonialism, and increasing demand for public education.
• Those now rethinking the missions, ethics, roles and responsibilities of museums, must first know their own history and its uses.

Subjects

• Nation-state
• Museums > Political aspects
• National characteristics
• Museums > Influence

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Introduction / Flora E.S. Kaplan -- 1. Paradise Regained: the Role of Pacific Museums in Forging National Identity / Adrienne L. Kaeppler -- 2. Nigerian Museums: Envisaging Culture as National Identity / Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan -- 3. Contested Identities: Museums and the Nation in Australia / Margaret Anderson and Andrew Reeves -- 4. Archaeology and the Establishment of Museums in Saudi Arabia / Abdullah H. Masry -- 5. History and Patriotism in the National Museum of Mexico / Luis Gerardo Morales-Moreno -- 6. The "Caribbeanization" of the West Indies: The Museum's Role in the Development of National Identity / Alissandra Cummins -- 7. Nostalgia for a Gilded Past? Museums in Minas Gerais, Brazil / J.P. Dickenson -- 8. The First Greek Museums and National Identity / Maria Avgouli -- 9. Old Wine in New Bottles, and the Reverse / Douglas Newton -- 10. Portuguese Art Treasures, Medieval Women and the Formation of Museum Collections / Madalena Braz Teixeira.
• 11. Archaeological Museums in Israel: Reflections on Problems of National Identity / Magen Broshi -- 12. Repatriation of Cultural Heritage: The African Experience / Ekpo Eyo -- 13. The Case for Wampum: Repatriation from the Museum of the American Indian to the Six Nations Confederacy, Brantford, Ontario, Canada / George H.J. Abrams -- 14. Anthropology and the Kistapi Waksin Syndrome: Distortions in Interpreting Subsistence Patterns among Mississippian State, Coast Salish, and Haida Complex Societies and Other Simpler Societies in North America / Howard D. Winters.

ISBN

071851775X

LCCN

94000672

OCLC

• 29703275
• ocm29703275
• SCSB-3186952

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries