Museums: A Visual Anthropology provides a clear and concise summary of the key ideas, debates and texts of the most important approaches to the study of museums from around the world. The book examines ways to address the social relations of museums, embedded in their sites, collections, and exhibitions, as an integral part of the visual and material culture they comprise. Cross-disciplinary in scope, Museums uses ideas and approaches both from within and outside of anthropology to further students' knowledge of and interest in museums. Including selected, globally based case studies to highlight and exemplify important issues, the book also contains suggested Further Reading for each chapter, for students to expand their learning independently. Exploring fundamental methods and approaches to engage this constantly evolving time machine, Museums will be essential reading for students of anthropology and museum studies.

About the author

Mary Bouquet is based at University College Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Museums in the Twenty-first Century
2 Stretching the National Museum
3 A History of Ethnographic Museums
4 The Ethnography of Museums
5 Practices of Object Display
6 Object and Image Repatriation
Bibliography
Index