Publication
Simon Knell (ed.) Museums in the Material World (London: Routledge, Leicester Readers in Museum Studies, 2007).
About
This book brings together a collection of readings that consider the object – or material culture – in the museum. It examines the museum’s underlying empiricism, the doubts raised by postmodernism (which at this time destabilising thinking), the implications of a world of consumption and finally a consideration of the ephemeral aspects of objects – that they do not represent an unchanging epistemological bedrock. The introductory chapter, which you can access on this site, explains the thinking behind the book.
Access
Free access to the accepted manuscript version of Chapter 1 via the link below.
Content
Introduction
Section 1: The objective world
The value of natural history collections in Latin American Conservation, Paisley S. Cato
Characterization of voucher specimens, Welton L. Lee, Bruce M. Bell, and John F. Sutton
Home Thoughts From Abroad: An Evaluation of the SAMDOK Homes Pool, Elisabet Stavenow-Hidemark
Ceramics as testaments of the past: field research and making objects speak, Barbara E. Frank
In praise of connoisseurship, David Carrier
Material culture, Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley
Section 2: The subjective world
On a new foundation: the American art museum reconceived, Stephen E. Weil
The art of art history, Donald Preziosi
Our (museum) world turned upside down: re-presenting Native American Arts, Janet Catherine Berlo and Ruth B. Phillips
History as deconstruction, Alan Munslow
Processual, postprocessual and interpretive archaeologies, Michael Shanks, and Ian Hodder
Artefacts and the meaning of things, Miller, Daniel
Section 3: The consumed world
The aristocracy of culture, Pierre Bourdieu
Stakeholder relationships in the market for contemporary art, Derrick Chong
Organising art: constructing aesthetic value, Jonathan Vickery
How Hello Kitty commodifies the cute, cool and camp, Brian McVeigh
The sociology of consumption, Colin Campbell
Inalienable wealth, Annette B. Weiner
Tournaments of value, Arjun Appadurai
Consuming fossils and museums in the nineteenth-century, Simon J. Knell
Dustup in the bone pile: academics v. collectors, Virginia Morell
Section 4: The transient world
Bones of contention: The repatriation of native American human remains, Andrew Gulliford
Contesting the West, Alan Trachtenberg
Abraham Lincoln as authentic reproduction: a critique of postmodernism, Edward M. Bruner
After Authenticity at an American Heritage Site, Eric Gable and Richard Handler
Diversity, identity and modernity in exile: ‘traditional’ Karenni clothing, Sandra Dudley
Mementoes as transitional objects in human displacement, David Parkin
Tangible reminders of September 11th, Glen Collins
On the rocks, Philip S. Doughty
Endangered species and the law, Valerius Geist
Museums, collections and biodiversity inventories, Pere Alberch
Simon Knell 