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

by Tony Bennett (Author), Fiona Cameron (Author), Nélia Dias (Author)

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 Mus e 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.

Author Biography

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.