Collecting Colonialism: Disembodied Culture at the Temple Anthropology Laboratory and Museum

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Like many small- to medium-sized anthropology departments in North America, Temple University houses a collections repository with a complex and poorly documented past. Beginning in the 1950s, more than 200 collections accumulated with limited direction, including ethnographic collections, archaeological collections, and several collections that defy geographic or thematic categorization. The laboratory and repository built in 1973 is now obsolete and we are at a pivotal point in finding a new identity within the university as an exhibition and teaching space. This includes understanding how our collections should and should not be used in the future. As a case study, I will discuss the development of an exhibit, “Collecting Colonialism: Disembodied Culture at the Temple Museum”. Students critically examined two collections that include a variety of unrelated archaeological, ethnographic, and unclassified objects. By allowing students to explore and present the ethical concerns associated with these collections, they gained experienced navigating the real conundrums and difficulties faced by museums of all sizes and descriptions. Although I am still uncertain of the long-term value in maintaining these collections, the challenges I struggle with as a museum practitioner were valuable teaching tools to prepare students for the often-messy world of museum collections.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39112.0