Collecting, Ordering, Governing: Anthropology, Museums, and Liberal Government

The coauthors of this theoretically innovative work explore the relationships among anthropological fieldwork, museum collecting and display, and social governance in the early twentieth century in Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, and the United States. With case studies ranging from the MusÉe de l'Homme's 1930s fieldwork missions in French Indo-China to the influence of Franz Boas's culture concept on the development of American museums, the authors illuminate recent debates about postwar forms of multicultural governance, cultural conceptions of difference, and postcolonial policy and practice in museums. Collecting, Ordering, Governing is essential reading for scholars and students of anthropology, museum studies, cultural studies, and indigenous studies as well as museum and heritage professionals.

Table of Contents:
Illustrations  vii Acronyms and Abbreviations  xiii Note on the Text  xv Acknowledgments  xvii Introduction  1 1. Collecting, Ordering, Governning  9 2. Curatorial Logics and Colonial Rule: The Political Rationalities of Anthropology in Two Australian-Administered Territories  51 3. A Liberal Archive of Everyday Life: Mass-Observation as Oligopticon  89 4. Boas and After: Museum Anthropology and the Governance of Difference in America  131 5. Producing "The Maori as He Was": New Zealand Museums, Anthropological Governance, and Indigenous Agency  175 6. Ethnology, Governance, and Greater France  217 Conclusion  255 Notes  273 References  291 Contributors  325 Index  327

About the Author :
Tony Bennett is Research Professor in Social and Cultural Theory, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Fiona Cameron is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. NÉlia Dias is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology (ISCTE-IUL and CRIA). Ben Dibley is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Rodney Harrison is Professor of Heritage Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Ira Jacknis is Research Anthropologist at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. Conal McCarthy is Director of the Museum & Heritage Studies program at Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand.  

Review :
"This book is a useful addition to the ever-increasing literature exploring the history of the anthropological discipline. Through its examination of particular case studies, it suggests many useful lines of inquiry for anyone exploring the histories of anthropology in different geographical localities." - Alison Petch (Museum Anthropology Review) "This volume can bring useful information to anthropologists, museum specialists, and historians of anthropology. . . . Maybe the most important contribution of this work to the wider academic and social discussions on anthropology and colonialism is its balanced and nuanced approach." - Alexandra Ion (AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology) “The ambitious range of case studies and their broad time span is impressive and draws on a vast range of resources, making the essays both scholarly and relevant.... Collecting, Ordering, Governing expands the notion of the museum phase of anthropology.” - Karen Jacobs (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)