Week 3 Readings

The readings for my third week of the internship focused on ethical issues surrounding museums and their collections.

The articles assigned were:
-Murray's "Bones of Contention: Human remains in museum collections"
-Barbara Krishenblatt-Gimblett's "Objects of Ethnography"

-F. Cultural Collections: NPS Museum Handbook, Part 1 (2006)

Krishenblatt-Gimblett's reading dealt with many subjects, but one that I found most interesting was the dilemma facing exhibit designers of choosing between "in context" and "in situ" displays. In context refers to arranging an artifact with others in a curio and in situ means arranging an artifact in the context of its environment (ex: building a replica of a house to display house hold items). Synthesizing this reading with others I have done for this internship, I would say that there are two main factors that I would consider if I had to choose between these two displays. The first would be the size and number of the objects. If the in situ replica would greatly overshadow the artifacts, I would choose to display them in a curio. But if I had several objects that could reveal a lot about a way of life by being shown in situ, then I would choose that option. The second consideration would be the visitor population. If it was for a museum that caters mainly to adults and university students, then I might lean more towards using a curio, where as if the museum is visited by good numbers of children, then I might lean more towards an interactive in situ display.

Murray's writing explored ethics in relation to human remains. The most important consideration when dealing with human remains is permission to examine them. Different cultures have different views on remains and their views should be considered. If possible, the nearest relatives of the remains discovered should be consulted as even within cultures there is great variation. Today, there are stringent laws in place to protect human remains and ensure that proper care is taken in dealing with them.

One such law is NAGPRA, discussed in detail in the article from the NPS Museum Handbook.I have done several readings on NAGPRA in past archaeology classes, but I found this reading particularly interesting as I had just read about how the MOA had to take inventory to comply with this law in doing research for our timeline. Talking with Ms. Bryner in our weekly readings-discussion-meeting on Friday, I learned even more about the impact NAGPRA has had on how objects are acquired and cataloged. The combination of readings and discussion this week has helped me understand how NAGPRA operates in museums on a regular basis.

Overall, each of the readings so far has helped me start to understand how museums operate, the ethical issues facing them and the type of work that goes into working for one.