The most recent issue (no. 52, autumn 2007) of Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics is dedicated to the theme "Museums -- Crossing Boundaries." The articles were originally presented at a conference held at Harvard University in April 2006, hosted by the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
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In the opening editorial Ivan Gaskell and Jeffrey Quilter set up the questions that the papers propose to answer:
We consider the things people make -- artifacts -- according to various disciplinary conventions, including those of anthropology, archaeology, art history, history, philosophy, and sociology. What are the relationships among these disciplines in respect of museums, the scholarly institutions that research and present artifacts? The various types of museums -- of art, anthropology, history, natural history, and science -- have largely operated in separate spheres. Increasingly, the rationale for their institutional boundaries is coming under conceptual pressure. In particular, changing ideas about class, race, ethnicity, and culture, in part generated within museums themselves, challenge the boundary between art and anthropology museums. How might art and anthropology museums, while sustaining their disciplinary commitments, find ways of sharing not only ideas but their collections?
CONTENTS:
Editorial / Ivan Gaskell and Jeffrey Quilter
The Museum of Art-thropology: Twenty-first Century Imbroglios / Ruth Phillips
The Common Path: Possible Futures for Art and Anthropology Museums / Thomas Lentz
Boundaries Crossed: The Interplay of Anthropology, Art, and Textual Studies at Harvard's Peabody Museum / William Fash
Whose Muse? Searching for Roles for Contemporary Museums / Jeffrey Quilter
Fusion Museums: On the Importance of Preserving an Embarrassing Genealogy / Michael Herzfeld
Art Matters in Museums: Whence Objects and for Whom? / Suzanne Blier
Museums are Good to Think / Anne D'Alleva
Crossing Cultures: Redefining a University Museum / Henry Kim
Zeitgeist and Early Ethnographic Collecting in Berlin: Implications and Perspectives for the Future / Viola König
Sharing, Crossing, and Subsuming Museum Boundaries: Current Directions / Richard Kurin
Working from Objects: Andean Studies, Museums, and Research / Natalia Majluf
Art and Artifact: Challenging Categories / Mary Malloy
Museums, Modernity, and Mythology: A Semioptic Review / Moyo Okediji
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