I continue to be distracted by worthy obligations in Oklahoma where I am working for the summer, but I managed to see another valuable review published on Museum Anthropology Review today. Building on earlier MUA and MAR contributions on heritage and cultural property policy is this review by former Museum Anthropology editor Christina Kreps. Christina offers a detailed and engaged assessment of the edited collection Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property and the Law. Given the high level of interest in these topics generally and the contention surrounding this book specifically, I anticipate that Christina's review will find a significant readership. Speaking personally, I am especially appreciative of Christina's continued support for the broader Museum Anthropology effort. Find her review here.
Book Reviews
Museum Anthropology (etc.) Update
Activity on the Museum Anthropology blog and at Museum Anthropology Review has been slow of late because I have been traveling to (and getting organized in) Oklahoma, where I am pursuing six weeks of curatorial work and research at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, OK. In the midst of this I have been trying to finalize issue 30(2) of Museum Anthropology for submission to the press.
Things will slowly return to normal over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I realized that I did not note here the publication of a fine review by Kristina Wirtz of the book Santería Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Find her review here.
Things will slowly return to normal over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I realized that I did not note here the publication of a fine review by Kristina Wirtz of the book Santería Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Find her review here.
Yearbook of Cultural Property Law (Reviewed)
Posted today to Museum Anthropology Review is an examination of the new annual called Yearbook of Cultural Property Law. The series is published by Left Coast Press under the editorship of Sherry Hutt and the sponsorship of the Lawyer's Committee on Cultural Heritage Preservation. Michael F. Brown has authored our review of the innuagural volume (2006). Find it here.
Transforming Museums: Mounting Queen Victoria in a Democratic South Africa (Reviewed)
Posted today to Museum Anthropology Review is an examination of Steven C. Durbin's book
Transforming Museums: Mounting Queen Victoria in a Democratic South Africa. The reviewer is C. Kurt Dewhurst, the Director of the Michigan State University Museum and a scholar-practitioner actively collaborating with museum professionals in contemporary South Africa. Find the review here. This is the 23rd contribution to Museum Anthropology Review and the first focused specifically on an African topic.
Transforming Museums: Mounting Queen Victoria in a Democratic South Africa. The reviewer is C. Kurt Dewhurst, the Director of the Michigan State University Museum and a scholar-practitioner actively collaborating with museum professionals in contemporary South Africa. Find the review here. This is the 23rd contribution to Museum Anthropology Review and the first focused specifically on an African topic.
Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures
Offerred today on Museum Anthropology Review is a review of the book Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures by Barton Wright. The reviewers are Dorothy Washburn and Emory Sekaquaptewa and they use the opportunity of this review to intervene and correct what they identify as a number of longstanding and widespread misunderstandings surrounding the carved figures known to the world as kachinas. I am confident that everyone concerned with Native American arts from the Southwest, including, curators, scholars, collectors, and dealers will have an interest in consulting their review. Find it here.
Mana Tuturu (Discussed)
While speaking of Museum Anthropology Review, I would note that a recent review of the book Mana Tuturu: Maori Treasures and Intellectual Property Rights by David Delgado Shorter (the reviewer) has been attracting considerable attention and has recieved several extended comments, including one by the book's author Barry Barclay. Find out what the discussion is about here.
Markets and Cultural Voices (Reviewed)
The latest contribution to Museum Anthropology Review is an assessment of Markets and Cultural Voices: Liverty vs. Power in the Lives of Mexican Amate Painters by Tyler Cowen. This review has been contributed by Alan R. Sandstrom, who has, himself, written on the paper arts of indigenous Mexico. Find Professor Sandstrom's review here.
Museum Anthropology: From the Beginning
Readers of the blog and of Museum Anthropology Review will have noticed a recent slowing of editorial activity. The end of the semester at Indiana University brought about a flury of work obligations as well as the need to catch-up on overdue non-editorial matters. The normal flow of activity will soon begin to resume. In the meantime, I can note our most recent revew and share some good journal news vis-a-vis AnthroSource.
A couple of days ago, a new book review, by Joanna Cohan Scherer was published on Museum Anthropology Review. Readers will find her review of Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915 by Steven Grafe here. Thanks go to Joanna for this contribution--the 20th published in Museum Anthropology Review.
I am pleased to report that I discovered today that the full run of back issues of Museum Anthropology are now accessible in AnthroSource. Special thanks to Candace Greene for her work rounding up the missing early issues and to her colleagues in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History for making them available for scanning. I have only begun to dip into the earliest issues, which I have never before had a chance to study, but it is clear that they are a key resource for understanding the history of our field and of the Council. While there will be, as with the materials previously posted into AS, bugs to find and (somehow) clean up, it is a great thing for the field to have digital access to the journal's thirty years of content. Find Museum Anthropology in AS at: http://www.anthrosource.net/loi/mua
A couple of days ago, a new book review, by Joanna Cohan Scherer was published on Museum Anthropology Review. Readers will find her review of Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915 by Steven Grafe here. Thanks go to Joanna for this contribution--the 20th published in Museum Anthropology Review.
I am pleased to report that I discovered today that the full run of back issues of Museum Anthropology are now accessible in AnthroSource. Special thanks to Candace Greene for her work rounding up the missing early issues and to her colleagues in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History for making them available for scanning. I have only begun to dip into the earliest issues, which I have never before had a chance to study, but it is clear that they are a key resource for understanding the history of our field and of the Council. While there will be, as with the materials previously posted into AS, bugs to find and (somehow) clean up, it is a great thing for the field to have digital access to the journal's thirty years of content. Find Museum Anthropology in AS at: http://www.anthrosource.net/loi/mua
Reviewed: The Antiquities Act
Published today on Museum Anthropology Review is an assessment, by Linda S. Cordell, of The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation, a collection edited by David Harmon, Francis P. McManamon, and Dwight T. Pitcaithley. Thanks to Dr. Cordell for this fine review of an important title in our field. Find the review here.
Reviewed: The Art of Ethnography: A Chinese “Miao Album”
Thanks go to Jiang Lu, the latest contributor to Museum Anthropology Review. In a review published today, she considers the book The Art of Ethnography: A Chinese “Miao Album.” Please enjoy Professor Lu's assessment, which can be found here.
On Transactions and Creations
Museum Anthropology contributor and booster Michael F. Brown, whose work on cultural property issues is well known to many in the field, has just published a helpful, detailed review of Transactions and Creations: Property Debates and the Stimulus of Melanesia edited by Eric Hirsch and Marilyn Strathern (in PoLAR). While the collection does not focus specifically on museum-related property issues, Michael's review suggests that it will become an important work in the broader literature on the anthropology of heritage policy and intellectual/cultural property debates. You can find the review in AnthroSource here.