Holistic Houses and a Sense of Place

Museum Worlds ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
Jennifer G. Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Hybrid Form ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
Initial Location ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the process of refinding the initial location of the Bishop Museum’s hale pili (Hawaiian pole and thatch house) and an archaeological investigation of the site’s surface architecture, use of space, and subsurface activities. The study touches upon themes relevant to representations of culture and place in museum exhibits, analysis of existing museum collections to holistically interpret material culture, and the history of anthropological collecting. The hale pili represents a “hybrid” form, with elements of precontact Hawaiian folk housing and European concepts introduced in the postcontact period. This problematizes the notion of “traditional” when used in relation to indigenous cultures in settler societies and the practice of exhibiting unique examples of “authentic” housing in isolation. Such analyses increase our interpretive abilities for museum collections and exhibits in the long term, particularly in reunifying folk housing and other material culture with location, a sense of place, and locale.

scholarly journals Archaeology and Ethnicity

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-149
Author(s):  
Staša Babić
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Cultural Group ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethnic Affiliation ◽  
Nation States ◽  
History Of

The paper examines the history of archaeological investigation into collective identities in the past. Culture-historical approachis fully based upon the concept of cultural group , deeply influenced by the modern understanding of nation-states – unity of territory, material culture, language and ethnic affiliation. The application of this concept led to devastating political abuses of archaeology, most notoriously in the case of Gustaf Kossinna in the Nazi Germany. The realisation that the very essence of thus conceived group identity in the past inevidably leads into the projection of the modern model of nation-state, resulted in thorough reconsideration. Over the last decades, archaeologists are investigating other possible paths of research into the group and individual identities in the past, informed by the constructivist approach.

scholarly journals MUSEUM COLLECTIONS OF OBJECTS OF CHUVASH CHILDREN'S CULTURE: ANALYSIS AND NEW APPROACHES IN THE PRESENTATION OF MATERIALS

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-654
Author(s):  
О. V. Egorova ◽  
I. V. Dmitrieva
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The World ◽  
Children's Museum ◽  
Modern Information ◽  
Children's Culture

This article discusses the specifics of the Museum collections of Chuvash children's culture based on the analysis of real (Museum exhibits), field sources and published literature. Unique objects and documents about the world of material culture of Chuvash childhood are kept in the museums of Russia. The authors analyzed children's Museum collections. Museum materials on childhood are grouped according to the following features: child care and play activities. New approaches in the presentation of stock materials focused on the use of modern information technologies in order to improve the efficiency of museums’ work, especially with children.

scholarly journals Twist-hands and shuttle-kissing

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Penny ◽  
Tom Fisher
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Automated Manufacturing ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
Know How ◽  
Embedded Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Automated Tools

This paper seeks to understand the skills of operating automated manufacturing machines of the C19th as craft practices, employing externally powered and automated tools around which new cultures of practice emerged. We draw upon situated/embodied/enactive/extended/distributed (SEEED) approaches to cognition to explicate the sensibilities of these practices, as well as the history of science and technology, Anthropology, STS and related fields. Our case study is a body of work focused on embodied/ embedded knowledge in the textile industry – specifically in the making of machine lace. We conclude with a proposal for multi-modal museum exhibits that provide an understanding of know-how, kinesthetic/proprioceptive skills and procedures. The authors are both long term practitioners of crafts, both traditional and industrial (see bios). This experience informs the research at every step.

scholarly journals Collecting Haudenosaunee Art from the Modern Era

Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Scott Manning Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Works Progress Administration ◽  
History Of Collecting ◽  
Look Back ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era

My essay considers the history of collecting the art of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) artists in the twentieth century. For decades Native visual and material culture was viewed under the guise of ‘crafts.’ I look back to the work of Lewis Henry Morgan on Haudenosaunee material culture. His writings helped establish a specific notion of Haudenosaunee material culture within the scholarly field of anthropology in the nineteenth century. At that point two-dimensional arts did not play a substantial role in Haudenosaunee visual culture, even though both Tuscarora and Seneca artists had produced drawings and paintings then. I investigate the turn toward collecting two-dimensional Haudenosaunee representational art, where before there was only craft. I locate this turn at the beginning of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration in the 1930s. It was at this point that Seneca anthropologist Arthur C. Parker recruited Native crafts people and painters working in two-dimensional art forms to participate in a Works Progress Administration-sponsored project known as the Seneca Arts Program. Thereafter, museum collectors began purchasing and displaying paintings by the artists: Jesse Cornplanter, Sanford Plummer, and Ernest Smith. I argue that their representation in museum collections opened the door for the contemporary Haudenosaunee to follow.

scholarly journals “For Eternal Storage...”: Regimental Relics of the Era of Paul I

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
Bella L. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Military History ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Military

Military material culture (tangible expression of military history) does not belong to topics unfairly forgotten by researchers. However, in mo­dern practice, the lost cultural heritage is not researched as actively as the preserved one. This study aims to fill in some lacunae in the history of military material culture related to the practice of re-mel­ting precious metal objects. The issue is consi­dered on the example of Life-Cuirassier Her Majesty’s Regiment. The article highlights the key moments of the regiment’s history related to royal awards. It was, primarily, the short epoch of the reign of Paul I when silver timpani, trumpets and cuirasses received the status of regimental relics (1799). During the reign of his successor Alexander I, with a reduction in the cost of maintaining the army, the silver part of this regimental relics was re-melted. The money received made up the fund of the offi­cer’s insurance capital. Some more of the regimental relics, precious in every sense, were lost in the years of the Great Patriotic War. As a result, the military material culture of the era of Paul I, in particular the protective armament, is presented very poorly in modern museum collections. This research helps to describe its character and history of exis­tence. The main sources of stu­dying the lost relics is the history of the regiment and its regimental archive published by Colonel M.I. Markov. Graphic documents are used as additional sources. The article outlines the list of modern museum collections that store preserved items, partly similar (partially interchangeable) to the lost ones. Summing up the results of the work, the study of the lost material cultural heritage is a promising scantily-explored direction of military history.

Odd deposits and average practice. A critical history of the concept of structured deposition

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Garrow
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Critical History ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper presents a critical history of the concept of ‘structured deposition’. It examines the long-term development of this idea in archaeology, from its origins in the early 1980s through to the present day, looking at how it has been moulded and transformed. On the basis of this historical account, a number of problems are identified with the way that ‘structured deposition’ has generally been conceptualized and applied. It is suggested that the range of deposits described under a single banner as being ‘structured’ is unhelpfully broad, and that archaeologists have been too willing to view material culture patterning as intentionally produced – the result of symbolic or ritual action. It is also argued that the material signatures of ‘everyday’ practice have been undertheorized and all too often ignored. Ultimately, it is suggested that if we are ever to understand fully the archaeological signatures of past practice, it is vital to consider the ‘everyday’ as well as the ‘ritual’ processes which lie behind the patterns we uncover in the ground.

Gazing upon the Invisible: Women and Children at the Old Baton Rouge Penitentiary

2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie H. Nobles
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Historic Document

AbstractThis research involves analysis of two works related to the same archaeological site. The archaeologists’ unconscious exclusion of information found in their scholarly report resulted in a public booklet that tells only part of the history of this site. A third historic document supplements this comparison and provides detailed information relevant to this analysis. Professional archaeologists interact with the public on multiple levels and their connections with education and curricula are established through their writings as well as more deliberate and obvious choices. Increasing levels of consciousness and recognition of responsibility to public education could result in more careful analysis of material culture, interpretation, and choices for all works involving archaeological sites. Foucault (in Gordon 1980) discussed the inclusion of hidden ruses and discourses about decisions, regulations, and strategies pertaining to particular institutions. Using the work of critical theorists, these issues are interwoven to examine this archaeological investigation with connections to the past through patterns that still pervade today.

scholarly journals WOJCIECH ANTONI JANUSZ GLUZIŃSKI (1922–2017)

Muzealnictwo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (0) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Gajewska-Prorok
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Department Head ◽  
National Museum ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Theorie Und Praxis ◽  
The University ◽  
The City ◽  
Long Term Studies

Wojciech A.J. Gluziński, a philosopher and an outstanding Polish theoretician of museology, passed away on 26 March 2017. He was born on 31 March 1922 into an intellectual family in Lviv. He commenced studying philosophy in 1945 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, and continued at the Faculty of Humanities at the University & Polytechnic in Wrocław. He got an MA in philosophy in 1952, but even in 1949 he had already started working in the Old Townhouse (later the Historical Museum of the City of Wrocław), a branch of the Silesian Museum (since 1970 the National Museum) in Wrocław. He was connected with the National Museum until the end of his career. In the following years he held the posts of Head of Historical Department, Head and later Curator of the Department of History of Material Culture, and was the museum’s advisor and counsellor from 1991 to 1995. He organised a dozen permanent and temporary exhibitions during more than 40 years of working. He wrote numerous articles published in such periodicals as: “Annual of the Kłodzko Region”, “Annual of Silesian Ethnography” and “Annual of Silesian Art”. His long-term studies on the theory of museology resulted in a doctoral dissertation entitled Philosophical and methodological problems of museology written under the supervision of Prof. Kazimierz Malinowski in 1976 in the Institute of Conservation and Historic Monuments Studies at the Copernicus University in Toruń. The edited work was published in 1980 as a book entitled Underlying museology. Gluziński shared his opinions at numerous conferences abroad, and published articles in post-conference materials, including in “ICOFOM Study Series”, “Muzeologické Sešity” and in “Neue Museumskunde. Theorie und Praxis der Museumsarbeit”.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Prehistoric Artifacts from the Pace McDonald Site (41AN51), Anderson County, Texas

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River ◽  
Ultimate Purpose

The Pace McDonald site (41AN51) is a poorly known prehistoric Caddo mound center on Mound Prairie Creek in Anderson County, Texas, in the upper Neches River Basin. With the permission of one of the landowners, Mr. Johnny Sanford, the Friends of Northeast Texas Archaeology are planning on initiating an archaeological research effort at the site in 2010. The ultimate purpose of this work is to learn more about the native history of this mound center-when it was occupied and used, and by which prehistoric Caddo group--its intra-site spatial organization, and ultimately obtain site-specific archaeological information that can help understand the site's place and role in the Caddo prehistory of this part of East Texas. It will be a long-term effort to accomplish these tasks. We intend to rely upon both archaeological (i.e., survey, surface collections, systematic shovel testing, and focused hand excavations) and archaeogeophysical disciplines (especially to complete a magnetometer survey of as much as the site as possible, as this has become an important aspect of Caddo archaeological investigations, to gather relevant archaeological information on the location and character of Caddo house features and outdoor activity areas, as well as the associated material culture remains and preserved plant and animal remains. One key aspect of our work is to understand the characteristics of the Caddo material culture from the Pace McDonald site, since this will have a large bearing on the age of the Caddo occupation, which has been a matter of dispute for some years. In this article 1 summarize the results and findings of a recent examination of the site's prehistoric artifacts (especially its prehistoric Caddo artifacts) in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin (TARL).

scholarly journals The Turin Papyrus Online Platform (TPOP): An Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Töpfer
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
General Public ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Long Term Preservation

In recent years, scholarly communities as well as the general public have been increasingly requesting open access to museum collections, prompting institutions to offer online catalogues, mostly of selected objects, in some cases even of their complete collections. Major Egyptian papyrus collections, however, have so far been extremely slow in adopting this open-access approach. Until recently, this was also true of the Museo Egizio in Turin, which houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities worldwide. The TPOP project aims to conserve, document, digitize and contextualize hundreds of papyrus manuscripts and thousands of fragments in a newly created online platform. This platform will enable scholars to work collaboratively on the material and will provide a straightforward publication outlet for both the scholarly and the general public. It aims to generate value beyond the mere preservation of material culture. The virtual “restoration” of papyri by digitally reconstructing them and joining fragments online makes possible what physical restoration does not allow, namely, the long-term preservation of written cultural heritage and its accessibility by anyone from anywhere and at any time. ملخص البحث: طلبت المجتمعات الأكاديمية وعامة الناس في السنوات الأخيرة الوصول بحرية إلى المجموعات الخاصة بالمتاحف، مما دفع المؤسسات إلى توفير كتالوجات على الإنترنت معظمها خاصة بعناصر منتقاة لدرجة أن بعضها يعرض المجموعات الكاملة لتلك العناصر في بعض الحالات. على الرغم من ذلك، فإن مجموعات ورق البردي المصرية الرئيسية بطيئة للغاية حتى الآن في تبني نهج الوصول الحر إليها. وهذا ينطبق أيضًا على المتحف المصري في تورينو حتى وقت قريب، والذي يضم واحدة من أكبر مجموعات الآثار المصرية في جميع أنحاء العالم. يهدف مشروع قاعدة بيانات البردي عبر الإنترنت في تورينو "TPOP" إلى حفظ المئات من مخطوطات البردي وآلاف الأجزاء الممزقة وتوثيقها ورقمنتها وفهم سياقها في منصة إلكترونية تم إنشاؤها حديثًا. ستعمل هذه المنصة على تمكين الأكاديميين من العمل بشكل تعاوني على المواد وستوفر منفذًا مباشرًا للمطبوعات لكل من الأكاديميين والعامة. ويهدف المشروع إلى إنشاء قيمة أكبر من مجرد الحفاظ على الثقافة المادية. حيث أنه من شأن "الترميم" الافتراضي للبرديات من خلال إعادة تكوينها رقمياً وجمع أجزاءها عبر الإنترنت أن يجعل ما لم يستطع الترميم المادي توفيره ممكنًا، وهو الحفاظ على التراث الثقافي المكتوب على المدى الطويل وإمكانية الوصول إليه من قبل أي شخص من أي مكان وفي أي وقت.

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