Abstract
This chapter discusses what the current “missions” or goals of anthropology and archaeology museums are today and, in the authors’ experiences, how these goals have changed during their respective careers. The authors discuss in this organizational or funding obstacles that have emerged and that they have overcome, and especially the logistics and “politics” of work in this field. Nash discusses these issues in particular reference to the Field Museum, Chicago and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS); O’Malley in particular reference to the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The authors identify in closing three currently disparate entities toward a common goal for museum-based archaeology: (1) the public’s inherent interest in our subject; (2) the often unseemly amounts of disposable income produced by Western-style capitalism; and (3) a preservation, conservation, and (most importantly) dissemination ethic amongst archaeologists such that museum archaeology again returns to a central position in the discipline and in society.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brodie, N., Kersel, N. M., Luke, C. and Tubb, K. W. (eds.) 2006 Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Colwell-Chanthaphonh, C., Nash, S. E. and Holen, S. 2010 Crossroads of Culture: the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Anthropology Collections. Denver: University Press of Colorado.
Cuno, J. 2008 Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Haas, J. 2003 The Changing Role of the Curator, in S. E. Nash and G. M. Feinman (eds.) Curators, Collections, and Contexts: Anthropology at the Field Museum, 1893–2002. Chicago: Field Museum. 237–42.
McEnroe, J. C. 2002 Cretan Questions: Politics and Archaeology 1898–1913. In Y. Hamilakis (ed.) Labyrinth Revisited: Rethinking ‘Minoan’ Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Nash, S. E. 1999 Time, Trees, and Prehistory: Tree-Ring Dating and the Development of North American Archaeology 1914 – 1950. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.
Nash, S. E. 2010 A Conflicted Legacy: Paul Sidney Martin as Museum Archaeologist 1925 – 1938, American Anthropologist 112(1):104–21.
Nash, S. E. and Feinman, G. F. (eds.) 2003 Curators, Collections, and Contexts: Anthropology at the Field Museum 1893 – 2002, Fieldiana: Anthropology, New Series 36(1).
Terrell, J. 1993 Disneyland and the Future of Museum Anthropology, American Anthropologist 93(1):149–53.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nash, S.E., O’Malley, N. (2011). The Changing Mission of Museums. In: Rockman, M., Flatman, J. (eds) Archaeology in Society. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9881-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9881-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9880-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9881-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)