Paul Basu is Professor of Anthropology and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn, with which he retains an affiliation. He has held professorships at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and at University College London. He is a social anthropologist, curator, filmmaker and critical heritage and museology specialist, with primary research expertise in West Africa and diasporic contexts. He recently led the AHRC-funded Museum Affordances / [Re:]Entanglements project (https://re-entanglements.net). Address: Global Heritage Lab University of Bonn Bischofsplatz 1 53111 Bonn Germany
Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fun... more Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fundamental crisis facing humanity: the global dominance of a capitalist/colonialist world order based on logics of extraction and exploitation. The modern, "universal" museum is implicated in this history. It is not only that the accumulation of exotic things was made possible through mercantile and colonial territorial expansion, but the transformation of such things into "objects of knowledge" and their incorporation into universalizing knowledge systems, given architectural expression in the museum, involved forms of epistemic violence that rendered other ways of knowing, understanding and being in the world nonexistent. As part of the project of decolonizing the museum, this article questions whether this process of "epistemicide" was indeed so complete, considers whether marginalized forms of knowledge may be reactivated in historical collections, and imagines the role of the "pluriversal museum" in contributing to the shaping of more just and sustainable planetary futures.
Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fun... more Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fundamental crisis facing humanity: the global domi-nance of a capitalist/colonialist world order based on logics of extraction and exploitation. The modern, ‘universal’ museum is implicated in this history. It is not only that the accumulation of exotic things was made possible through mercantile and colonial territorial expansion, but the transformation of such things into ‘objects of knowledge’ and their incorporation into universalizing knowledge systems, given architectural expression in the museum, involved forms of epistemic violence that rendered other ways of knowing, understanding and being in the world non-existent. As part of the project of decolonizing the museum, this article questions whether this process of ‘epistemicide’ was indeed so complete, considers whether marginalized forms of knowledge may be reactivated in historical collections, and imagines the role of the ‘pluriversal museum’ in contributing to the shaping of more just and sustainable planetary futures.
in F. Driver, M. Nesbitt and C. Cornish (eds), Mobile Museums, UCL Press, 2021
Sections:
Museum... more in F. Driver, M. Nesbitt and C. Cornish (eds), Mobile Museums, UCL Press, 2021
Sections:
Museum affordances
Assembling, disassembling and reassembling an ethnographic archive
Re-mobilisations
Archival returns
Diasporic reconnections
Creative re-engagements
Conclusions
Consultation report prepared for the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and ... more Consultation report prepared for the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and Monuments and Relics Commission reviewing Sierra Leone's existing heritage legislation and making recommendations for the development of new legislation. Including discussions of Sierra Leone's cultural heritage assets, existing heritage legislation and reviewing international standards. Emphasis is placed on developing holistic approaches to tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the need to innovate sustainable community-based conservation and care.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015), Vol 22, pp.84-107
As the first government... more Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015), Vol 22, pp.84-107
As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro-historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities' attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed.
in S. Coleman, S. B. Hyatt & A. Kingsolver (eds), Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropolog... more in S. Coleman, S. B. Hyatt & A. Kingsolver (eds), Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropology, New York: Routledge, 2017.
Social Anthropology 24(1): 5-19 (2016)
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled t... more Social Anthropology 24(1): 5-19 (2016)
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled the collection, storage, ordering, retrieval and exchange of knowledge as an instrument of colonial governance. It is not surprising that when such archives were inherited by independent nation-states they were not given the authority previously granted them and have often been neglected. What, then, is the future of colonial archives in postcolonial nations? How should we rethink these archives in relation to decolonial futures? This essay introduces a collection of articles that explore the repertoires of action latent in archives and how colonial archives are being reconfigured to imagine decolonial futures.
... Rediscovering Anthropology Through Public Museums. Paul Basu,; Simon Coleman,; Sarah Posey. A... more ... Rediscovering Anthropology Through Public Museums. Paul Basu,; Simon Coleman,; Sarah Posey. Article first published online: 24 DEC 2008. DOI: 10.1525/an.2006.47.9.16. Issue. Anthropology News. Volume 47, Issue 9, page 16, December 2006. Additional Information. ...
in P. Basu and W. Modest (eds), Museums, Heritage and International Development, New York: Routle... more in P. Basu and W. Modest (eds), Museums, Heritage and International Development, New York: Routledge, 2014. [Note that this is an uncorrected pre-publication proof.]
Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fun... more Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fundamental crisis facing humanity: the global dominance of a capitalist/colonialist world order based on logics of extraction and exploitation. The modern, "universal" museum is implicated in this history. It is not only that the accumulation of exotic things was made possible through mercantile and colonial territorial expansion, but the transformation of such things into "objects of knowledge" and their incorporation into universalizing knowledge systems, given architectural expression in the museum, involved forms of epistemic violence that rendered other ways of knowing, understanding and being in the world nonexistent. As part of the project of decolonizing the museum, this article questions whether this process of "epistemicide" was indeed so complete, considers whether marginalized forms of knowledge may be reactivated in historical collections, and imagines the role of the "pluriversal museum" in contributing to the shaping of more just and sustainable planetary futures.
Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fun... more Climate change, species extinction and accelerating inequalities are manifestations of a more fundamental crisis facing humanity: the global domi-nance of a capitalist/colonialist world order based on logics of extraction and exploitation. The modern, ‘universal’ museum is implicated in this history. It is not only that the accumulation of exotic things was made possible through mercantile and colonial territorial expansion, but the transformation of such things into ‘objects of knowledge’ and their incorporation into universalizing knowledge systems, given architectural expression in the museum, involved forms of epistemic violence that rendered other ways of knowing, understanding and being in the world non-existent. As part of the project of decolonizing the museum, this article questions whether this process of ‘epistemicide’ was indeed so complete, considers whether marginalized forms of knowledge may be reactivated in historical collections, and imagines the role of the ‘pluriversal museum’ in contributing to the shaping of more just and sustainable planetary futures.
in F. Driver, M. Nesbitt and C. Cornish (eds), Mobile Museums, UCL Press, 2021
Sections:
Museum... more in F. Driver, M. Nesbitt and C. Cornish (eds), Mobile Museums, UCL Press, 2021
Sections:
Museum affordances
Assembling, disassembling and reassembling an ethnographic archive
Re-mobilisations
Archival returns
Diasporic reconnections
Creative re-engagements
Conclusions
Consultation report prepared for the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and ... more Consultation report prepared for the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and Monuments and Relics Commission reviewing Sierra Leone's existing heritage legislation and making recommendations for the development of new legislation. Including discussions of Sierra Leone's cultural heritage assets, existing heritage legislation and reviewing international standards. Emphasis is placed on developing holistic approaches to tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the need to innovate sustainable community-based conservation and care.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015), Vol 22, pp.84-107
As the first government... more Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015), Vol 22, pp.84-107
As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro-historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities' attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed.
in S. Coleman, S. B. Hyatt & A. Kingsolver (eds), Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropolog... more in S. Coleman, S. B. Hyatt & A. Kingsolver (eds), Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropology, New York: Routledge, 2017.
Social Anthropology 24(1): 5-19 (2016)
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled t... more Social Anthropology 24(1): 5-19 (2016)
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled the collection, storage, ordering, retrieval and exchange of knowledge as an instrument of colonial governance. It is not surprising that when such archives were inherited by independent nation-states they were not given the authority previously granted them and have often been neglected. What, then, is the future of colonial archives in postcolonial nations? How should we rethink these archives in relation to decolonial futures? This essay introduces a collection of articles that explore the repertoires of action latent in archives and how colonial archives are being reconfigured to imagine decolonial futures.
... Rediscovering Anthropology Through Public Museums. Paul Basu,; Simon Coleman,; Sarah Posey. A... more ... Rediscovering Anthropology Through Public Museums. Paul Basu,; Simon Coleman,; Sarah Posey. Article first published online: 24 DEC 2008. DOI: 10.1525/an.2006.47.9.16. Issue. Anthropology News. Volume 47, Issue 9, page 16, December 2006. Additional Information. ...
in P. Basu and W. Modest (eds), Museums, Heritage and International Development, New York: Routle... more in P. Basu and W. Modest (eds), Museums, Heritage and International Development, New York: Routledge, 2014. [Note that this is an uncorrected pre-publication proof.]
We habitually categorize the world in binary logics of ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’, ‘human’ and ‘no... more We habitually categorize the world in binary logics of ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’, ‘human’ and ‘non-human’, ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’, ‘self’ and ‘other’, ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’. The Inbetweenness of Things rejects such Western classificatory traditions - which tend to categorize objects using bounded notions of period, place and purpose - and instead argues for a paradigm where objects are not one thing or another but a multiplicity of things at once.
Adopting an ‘object-centred’ approach, with contributions from material culture specialists from various disciplines, the book showcases a series of objects that defy neat classification. In the process, it explores how ‘things’ mediate and travel between conceptual worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts, and how they embody such mediation and movement in their form. With an impressive range of international contributors, each essay grounds explorations of cutting-edge theory in concrete case studies.
An innovative, thought-provoking read for students and researchers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies and art history which will transform the way readers think about objects.
While many claims are made regarding the power of cultural heritage as a driver and enabler of su... more While many claims are made regarding the power of cultural heritage as a driver and enabler of sustainable development, the relationship between museums, heritage and development has received little academic scrutiny. This book stages a critical conversation between the interdisciplinary fields of museum studies, heritage studies and development studies to explore this under-researched sphere of development intervention. In an agenda-setting introduction, the editors explore the seemingly oppositional temporalities and values represented by these "past-making" and "future-making" projects, arguing that these provide a framework for mutual critique. Contributors to the volume bring insights from a wide range of academic and practitioner perspectives on a series of international case studies, which each raise challenging questions that reach beyond merely cultural concerns and fully engage with both the legacies of colonial power inequalities and the shifting geopolitical dynamics of contemporary international relations. Cultural heritage embodies different values and can be instrumentalized to serve different economic, social and political objectives within development contexts, but the past is also intrinsic to the present and is foundational to people’s aspirations for the future. Museums, Heritage and International Development explores the problematics as well as potentials, the politics as well as possibilities, in this fascinating nexus.
Exhibition Experiments is a lively and imaginative anthology which considers experiments with mus... more Exhibition Experiments is a lively and imaginative anthology which considers experiments with museological form that challenge our understanding and experience of museums and exhibitions. Exploring examples from around the world, Exhibition Experiments investigates a range of topic issues which chart the frontier of museum studies. These include: the popularity and proliferation of museum experimentation, novel exhibitionary forms and their implications for knowledge and identity, transformations of architecture and design, narrative and navigation, juxtapositions of art with science and ethnography, the fate of conventional notions of 'objects' and 'representation', and the disorientating yet stimulating consequences of all this for museum-going.
This innovative collection brings together a mix of art historians, anthropologists, curators, and sociologists to question traditional disciplinary boundaries. Contributors tackle a range of examples of experimentalism from many different countries and exhibition spaces, and combine them with cutting-edge museum theory. The result is an exciting volume that captures the changes and challenging new possibilities facing museum studies.
'A challenging and fascinating book that theorizes exhibitions as media for encounter, enactment, experience, and the creation rather than the transmission of knowledge. It opens up a whole new way of thinking about the potential of galleries and museums. Essential reading' - Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, University of Leicester
'This scintillating collection offers the most original treatment yet of experiment as an appealing, provoking ideology that has pulled together diverse critical approaches in the study of modern culture. An absorbing read all the way through' - George Marcus, University of California, Irvine
'This book combines stimulating essays by established scholars who have pioneered research into exhibitionary practice, with exciting and innovative chapters by younger scholars. It will be of equal relevance to museum professionals and the audiences who participate in the museum experience' - Howard Morphy, Australian National University
While much scholarly work exists on both migration and material culture, there is remarkably litt... more While much scholarly work exists on both migration and material culture, there is remarkably little literature explicitly concerned with how these areas of study converge. This special issue provides a number of points of departure for exploring the relationships between 'migrant worlds' and 'material cultures', shifting the theoretical framing of migrancy into some areas of concern that have been of long-standing importance within anthropology (the gift, temporality, translation), but have not necessarily been those raised most frequently in relation to migration studies.
Table of contents Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Migrant Worlds, Material Cultures Orvar Lofgren - Motion and Emotion: Learning to be a Railway Traveller Kathy Burrell - Materialising the Border: Spaces of Mobility and Material Culture in Migration from Post-Socialist Poland Tania Kaiser - Social and Ritual Activity In and Out of Place: the 'Negotiation of Locality' in a Sudanese Refugee Settlement Daniel Miller - Migration, Material Culture and Tragedy: Four Moments in Caribbean Migration Lucy Norris - Recycling and Reincarnation: the Journeys of Indian Saris
"The first full-length ethnographic study of its kind, Highland Homecomings examines the role of ... more "The first full-length ethnographic study of its kind, Highland Homecomings examines the role of place, ancestry and territorial attachment in the context of a modern age characterized by mobility and rootlessness.
With an interdisciplinary approach, speaking to current themes in anthropology, archaeology, history, historical geography, cultural studies, migration studies, tourism studies, Scottish studies, Paul Basu explores the journeys made to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to undertake genealogical research and seek out ancestral sites.
Using an innovative methodological approach, Basu tracks journeys between imagined homelands and physical landscapes and argues that through these genealogical journeys, individuals are able to construct meaningful self-narratives from the ambiguities of their diasporic migrant histories, and recover their sense of home and self-identity.
This is a significant contribution to popular and academic Scottish studies literature, particularly appealing to popular and academic audiences in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland.
‘… in integrating and drawing upon work within both anthropology and geography, he takes important steps forward in the progress of both subject areas in their attempts to come to terms with this most important, and yet little understood, phenomenon…Highland Homecomings is a well written account, and it is to the author’s great credit that the book is, at the same time, highly entertaining, intellectually stimulating and never patronising about its subjects… This is a very valuable addition to work on Scotland, (Celtic) identity, and diaspora as a whole.’ – Journal of Historical Geography
‘…an intriguing study of a long-neglected aspect of diaspora, namely that of homing-desire and homecoming-practice in all their psychological, performative, and political facets.’ – Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"
Anthropology has traditionally been a university-based discipline. This collection of essays expl... more Anthropology has traditionally been a university-based discipline. This collection of essays explores the teaching of anthropology outside Higher Education, including in primary and secondary education, in museums, and elsewhere. Including comparisons between the USA and UK, the articles examine how students discover anthropology, raise questions regarding widening participation in the discipline, and chart the introduction of the first A-level qualification in anthropology.
Table of Contents Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Pathways to Anthropology Paul Hawkins and David Mills - Home or Away? Widening Participation and the Challenge for Anthropology David Bennett - Encountering Anthropology: An Exploratory Study of Degree Choice Colleen Popson and Guven Witteveen - Grassroots Dedication and Opportunism: The Pre-university Anthropology Education Movement in the United States Stephanie Bunn - From Enskillment to Houses of Learning Marzia Balzani - Anthropology and the International Baccalaureate: History, Practice and Future Challenges Hilary Callan and Brian Street - Anthropology, Education and the Wider Public Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Culture, Identity, Difference: Developing a Museum-based Anthropology Education Resource for Pre-university Students Bob Simpson - A Good Straight Road: Reflections on the Development of Pre-university Anthropology in the UK
Video experiment as part of AHRC-funded Museum Affordances project, exploring juxtaposition of gl... more Video experiment as part of AHRC-funded Museum Affordances project, exploring juxtaposition of glances and implicit narratives in a photograph taken during N. W. Thomas's tour of Awka District, Southern Nigeria as Government Anthropologist in 1910-11.
Facebook Group associated with the www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital heritage resource. Open to... more Facebook Group associated with the www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital heritage resource. Open to all with an interest in Sierra Leone's culture and heritage.
www.sierraleoneheritage.org is a digital heritage resource that provides access to the Sierra Leonean collections of the Sierra Leone National Museum, the British Museum, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, the World Museum Liverpool and the British Library Sound Archive along with other cultural heritage resources relating to Sierra Leone.
Working with numerous partners in Sierra Leone, the project commissioned a large number of video documentations of cultural heritage practices, which are freely accessible at the website. Through Facebook we are keen to reach out to Sierra Leonean and others throughout the world who share an interest in Sierra Leonean culture and heritage, and their contribution to post-conflict development.
The www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital resource is the main output of a research project entitle... more The www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital resource is the main output of a research project entitled ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’. The project was funded between 2009 and 2012 by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of its Beyond Text programme and was directed by Dr Paul Basu of University College London. The project’s Informatics team was led by Dr Martin White of the University of Sussex.
The ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage’ project was concerned with innovating digital curatorship in relation to Sierra Leonean collections dispersed in the global museumscape. Building on research in anthropology, museum studies, informatics and beyond, the project considered how objects that have become isolated from the oral and performative contexts that originally animated them can be reanimated in digital space alongside associated images, video clips, sounds, texts and other media, and thereby be given new life. At the project’s heart was a series of collaborations between museums including the Sierra Leone National Museum, the British Museum, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, the World Museum Liverpool, and the British Library Sound Archive . The project also engaged in capacity building activities in the cultural sector in Sierra Leone and commissioned the production of videos on cultural heritage themes from Sierra Leonean partner organisations including Ballanta Academy of Music, iEARN-Sierra Leone, and Talking Drum Studios.
Another key objective of the project was to experiment with the integration of web-based social networking technologies into the digital heritage resource in order to (re)connect objects in museum collections with disparate communities and to foster reciprocal knowledge exchange across boundaries. Visitors to SierraLeoneHeritage.org can become part of its community, contribute comments, engage in discussions, and upload their own images and videos by joining the Sierra Leone Heritage Facebook Group.
The www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital resource was launched first at the Sierra Leone National Museum in November 2011, and subsequently at a special event and exhibition at University College London in February 2012. Portable copies of the resource have been distributed to many schools in Sierra Leone and are used in ongoing outreach activities by the Sierra Leone National Museum.
Historically, cultural heritage has been a low priority in Sierra Leone. The hope is that by reanimating these dispersed collections and the differently-situated knowledges that surround them, Sierra Leone’s rich cultural heritage can be better appreciated and contribute to the reanimation of Sierra Leonean society more generally.
Audio recording of paper presented at 'The Stuff of Memory' symposium, Wellcome Collection, 3 Oct... more Audio recording of paper presented at 'The Stuff of Memory' symposium, Wellcome Collection, 3 October 2015.
People shape their material worlds, and the material world shapes people. Objects, landscapes, buildings and monuments may be regarded as carriers of memory – both personal and collective. The movement of people and things is entangled. Paul Basu, Professor of Anthropology at SOAS University of London, draws upon contemporary material culture studies to explore the ‘stuff of memory’ and the migrant nature of both memory and materiality through a series of case studies from cross-cultural contexts.
Call for papers for EASA2016 conference, University of Milano-Bococca.
This panel explores the a... more Call for papers for EASA2016 conference, University of Milano-Bococca.
This panel explores the affordances of the ethnographic archive for contemporary communities and their future-orientated projects. This archive encompasses the material and immaterial traces of past anthropological research, including material culture collections, photographs, sound recordings, film, fieldnotes, and publications. We are interested in how communities are engaging with this anthropological legacy in the present, how it is valued (or not valued) and what action possibilities it is perceived to possess. We are also concerned with how institutions such as museums, archives (including sound and visual archives), universities and individuals are using these materials as a medium for re-engaging with communities in the present. How does working with historical ethnographic collections, photographs or sound recordings enable the development of sustainable relationships with differently-situated actors today? The panel explores the on-going entanglements between the histories of anthropology, including anthropological collecting, image-making and sound recording, and the histories and futures of the communities studied. What were the perceived affordances of collections at the time they were assembled? How have these changed over time? To what degree does the archive now constitute a cultural heritage? Have these materials been re-appropriated to inform cultural revival or inspire contemporary artists, for instance? What are the ethical implications when anthropologists seek to actively re-engage present-day communities with the ethnographic archive, for instance by facilitating access to historical sound recordings, photographs and artefacts held by institutions. The panel explores the material, visual and sonic legacies of anthropological research and their reconfiguration in the imagination of human futures.
""A One-Day Symposium at The British Museum, 22 March 2013
We invite speakers from a wide vari... more ""A One-Day Symposium at The British Museum, 22 March 2013
We invite speakers from a wide variety of disciplines to participate in this symposium to explore the concept of ‘in-betweenness’ in material and visual culture. We encourage participants to take an ‘object-centred’ approach, each using a particular object as a starting point to explore how things mediate between worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts. We welcome papers that seek to expand our understanding of the nature of mediation, hybridity, ambiguity, mobility, interconnectivity, creolization and entanglement. How are such qualities expressed in material form? In what ways is the mediatory agency of such objects articulated? How do such objects challenge the reification of dichotomized worldviews (us/them, here/there, present/past, modern/primitive)?
A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Material Culture devoted to the theme of the symposium.
Please email a title and 250 abstract to Paul Basu at <paul.basu@ucl.ac.uk> by 31 January 2013 if you would like to submit a paper for consideration.
""
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Papers by Paul Basu
Sections:
Museum affordances
Assembling, disassembling and reassembling an ethnographic archive
Re-mobilisations
Archival returns
Diasporic reconnections
Creative re-engagements
Conclusions
As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro-historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities' attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed.
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled the collection, storage, ordering, retrieval and exchange of knowledge as an instrument of colonial governance. It is not surprising that when such archives were inherited by independent nation-states they were not given the authority previously granted them and have often been neglected. What, then, is the future of colonial archives in postcolonial nations? How should we rethink these archives in relation to decolonial futures? This essay introduces a collection of articles that explore the repertoires of action latent in archives and how colonial archives are being reconfigured to imagine decolonial futures.
Sections:
Museum affordances
Assembling, disassembling and reassembling an ethnographic archive
Re-mobilisations
Archival returns
Diasporic reconnections
Creative re-engagements
Conclusions
As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro-historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities' attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed.
Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled the collection, storage, ordering, retrieval and exchange of knowledge as an instrument of colonial governance. It is not surprising that when such archives were inherited by independent nation-states they were not given the authority previously granted them and have often been neglected. What, then, is the future of colonial archives in postcolonial nations? How should we rethink these archives in relation to decolonial futures? This essay introduces a collection of articles that explore the repertoires of action latent in archives and how colonial archives are being reconfigured to imagine decolonial futures.
Adopting an ‘object-centred’ approach, with contributions from material culture specialists from various disciplines, the book showcases a series of objects that defy neat classification. In the process, it explores how ‘things’ mediate and travel between conceptual worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts, and how they embody such mediation and movement in their form. With an impressive range of international contributors, each essay grounds explorations of cutting-edge theory in concrete case studies.
An innovative, thought-provoking read for students and researchers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies and art history which will transform the way readers think about objects.
This innovative collection brings together a mix of art historians, anthropologists, curators, and sociologists to question traditional disciplinary boundaries. Contributors tackle a range of examples of experimentalism from many different countries and exhibition spaces, and combine them with cutting-edge museum theory. The result is an exciting volume that captures the changes and challenging new possibilities facing museum studies.
'A challenging and fascinating book that theorizes exhibitions as media for encounter, enactment, experience, and the creation rather than the transmission of knowledge. It opens up a whole new way of thinking about the potential of galleries and museums. Essential reading' - Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, University of Leicester
'This scintillating collection offers the most original treatment yet of experiment as an appealing, provoking ideology that has pulled together diverse critical approaches in the study of modern culture. An absorbing read all the way through' - George Marcus, University of California, Irvine
'This book combines stimulating essays by established scholars who have pioneered research into exhibitionary practice, with exciting and innovative chapters by younger scholars. It will be of equal relevance to museum professionals and the audiences who participate in the museum experience' - Howard Morphy, Australian National University
Table of contents
Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Migrant Worlds, Material Cultures
Orvar Lofgren - Motion and Emotion: Learning to be a Railway Traveller
Kathy Burrell - Materialising the Border: Spaces of Mobility and Material Culture in Migration from Post-Socialist Poland
Tania Kaiser - Social and Ritual Activity In and Out of Place: the 'Negotiation of Locality' in a Sudanese Refugee Settlement
Daniel Miller - Migration, Material Culture and Tragedy: Four Moments in Caribbean Migration
Lucy Norris - Recycling and Reincarnation: the Journeys of Indian Saris
With an interdisciplinary approach, speaking to current themes in anthropology, archaeology, history, historical geography, cultural studies, migration studies, tourism studies, Scottish studies, Paul Basu explores the journeys made to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to undertake genealogical research and seek out ancestral sites.
Using an innovative methodological approach, Basu tracks journeys between imagined homelands and physical landscapes and argues that through these genealogical journeys, individuals are able to construct meaningful self-narratives from the ambiguities of their diasporic migrant histories, and recover their sense of home and self-identity.
This is a significant contribution to popular and academic Scottish studies literature, particularly appealing to popular and academic audiences in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland.
‘… in integrating and drawing upon work within both anthropology and geography, he takes important steps forward in the progress of both subject areas in their attempts to come to terms with this most important, and yet little understood, phenomenon…Highland Homecomings is a well written account, and it is to the author’s great credit that the book is, at the same time, highly entertaining, intellectually stimulating and never patronising about its subjects… This is a very valuable addition to work on Scotland, (Celtic) identity, and diaspora as a whole.’ – Journal of Historical Geography
‘…an intriguing study of a long-neglected aspect of diaspora, namely that of homing-desire and homecoming-practice in all their psychological, performative, and political facets.’ – Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"
Table of Contents
Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Pathways to Anthropology
Paul Hawkins and David Mills - Home or Away? Widening Participation and the Challenge for Anthropology
David Bennett - Encountering Anthropology: An Exploratory Study of Degree Choice
Colleen Popson and Guven Witteveen - Grassroots Dedication and Opportunism: The Pre-university Anthropology Education Movement in the United States
Stephanie Bunn - From Enskillment to Houses of Learning
Marzia Balzani - Anthropology and the International Baccalaureate: History, Practice and Future Challenges
Hilary Callan and Brian Street - Anthropology, Education and the Wider Public
Paul Basu and Simon Coleman - Culture, Identity, Difference: Developing a Museum-based Anthropology Education Resource for Pre-university Students
Bob Simpson - A Good Straight Road: Reflections on the Development of Pre-university Anthropology in the UK
www.sierraleoneheritage.org is a digital heritage resource that provides access to the Sierra Leonean collections of the Sierra Leone National Museum, the British Museum, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, the World Museum Liverpool and the British Library Sound Archive along with other cultural heritage resources relating to Sierra Leone.
Working with numerous partners in Sierra Leone, the project commissioned a large number of video documentations of cultural heritage practices, which are freely accessible at the website. Through Facebook we are keen to reach out to Sierra Leonean and others throughout the world who share an interest in Sierra Leonean culture and heritage, and their contribution to post-conflict development.
For further information please see http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/about/ or contact info@sierraleoneheritage.org
The ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage’ project was concerned with innovating digital curatorship in relation to Sierra Leonean collections dispersed in the global museumscape. Building on research in anthropology, museum studies, informatics and beyond, the project considered how objects that have become isolated from the oral and performative contexts that originally animated them can be reanimated in digital space alongside associated images, video clips, sounds, texts and other media, and thereby be given new life. At the project’s heart was a series of collaborations between museums including the Sierra Leone National Museum, the British Museum, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, the World Museum Liverpool, and the British Library Sound Archive . The project also engaged in capacity building activities in the cultural sector in Sierra Leone and commissioned the production of videos on cultural heritage themes from Sierra Leonean partner organisations including Ballanta Academy of Music, iEARN-Sierra Leone, and Talking Drum Studios.
Another key objective of the project was to experiment with the integration of web-based social networking technologies into the digital heritage resource in order to (re)connect objects in museum collections with disparate communities and to foster reciprocal knowledge exchange across boundaries. Visitors to SierraLeoneHeritage.org can become part of its community, contribute comments, engage in discussions, and upload their own images and videos by joining the Sierra Leone Heritage Facebook Group.
The www.sierraleoneheritage.org digital resource was launched first at the Sierra Leone National Museum in November 2011, and subsequently at a special event and exhibition at University College London in February 2012. Portable copies of the resource have been distributed to many schools in Sierra Leone and are used in ongoing outreach activities by the Sierra Leone National Museum.
Historically, cultural heritage has been a low priority in Sierra Leone. The hope is that by reanimating these dispersed collections and the differently-situated knowledges that surround them, Sierra Leone’s rich cultural heritage can be better appreciated and contribute to the reanimation of Sierra Leonean society more generally.
People shape their material worlds, and the material world shapes people. Objects, landscapes, buildings and monuments may be regarded as carriers of memory – both personal and collective. The movement of people and things is entangled. Paul Basu, Professor of Anthropology at SOAS University of London, draws upon contemporary material culture studies to explore the ‘stuff of memory’ and the migrant nature of both memory and materiality through a series of case studies from cross-cultural contexts.
https://soundcloud.com/wellcomecollection/material-culture-memory-movement-paul-basu?in=wellcomecollection/sets/the-stuff-of-memory-symposium
This panel explores the affordances of the ethnographic archive for contemporary communities and their future-orientated projects. This archive encompasses the material and immaterial traces of past anthropological research, including material culture collections, photographs, sound recordings, film, fieldnotes, and publications. We are interested in how communities are engaging with this anthropological legacy in the present, how it is valued (or not valued) and what action possibilities it is perceived to possess. We are also concerned with how institutions such as museums, archives (including sound and visual archives), universities and individuals are using these materials as a medium for re-engaging with communities in the present. How does working with historical ethnographic collections, photographs or sound recordings enable the development of sustainable relationships with differently-situated actors today? The panel explores the on-going entanglements between the histories of anthropology, including anthropological collecting, image-making and sound recording, and the histories and futures of the communities studied. What were the perceived affordances of collections at the time they were assembled? How have these changed over time? To what degree does the archive now constitute a cultural heritage? Have these materials been re-appropriated to inform cultural revival or inspire contemporary artists, for instance? What are the ethical implications when anthropologists seek to actively re-engage present-day communities with the ethnographic archive, for instance by facilitating access to historical sound recordings, photographs and artefacts held by institutions. The panel explores the material, visual and sonic legacies of anthropological research and their reconfiguration in the imagination of human futures.
To propose a paper, please visit http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4088
We invite speakers from a wide variety of disciplines to participate in this symposium to explore the concept of ‘in-betweenness’ in material and visual culture. We encourage participants to take an ‘object-centred’ approach, each using a particular object as a starting point to explore how things mediate between worlds in diverse cultural, geographic and temporal contexts. We welcome papers that seek to expand our understanding of the nature of mediation, hybridity, ambiguity, mobility, interconnectivity, creolization and entanglement. How are such qualities expressed in material form? In what ways is the mediatory agency of such objects articulated? How do such objects challenge the reification of dichotomized worldviews (us/them, here/there, present/past, modern/primitive)?
A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Material Culture devoted to the theme of the symposium.
Please email a title and 250 abstract to Paul Basu at <paul.basu@ucl.ac.uk> by 31 January 2013 if you would like to submit a paper for consideration.
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