Bilinda
Straight
ANTH
5450
Moore
Hall 1001
Moore
Hall 1111
Phone:
387-0409
Tues
4-6:20 p.m.
email:
bilinda DOT straight AT wmich AT edu
web
page address:
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~bstraigh
Museums and
Material Culture
A
critical interrogation of the history of anthropology demands a careful
consideration of the relationship between anthropology and museums.
From its
inception, anthropology contributed to lay understandings of the
"exotic" objects contained within the "cabinets of
curiosities" that filled museums. At the same time, museums and
anthropology were so fundamentally connected, that many
anthropologists'
research was funded by museums specifically for the purpose of
contributing to
their collections and exhibitions.
This
course comprises: a critical consideration of museum practices,
including
processes of collection, archives, and exhibition; and critical
approaches to
material culture more broadly. It is also meant to be an exploratory
course,
dependent on full engagement between participants—me as well as
you. We
will be actively engaged in a process of discovery in terms of how to
understand objects in cultural and historical context, how to
critically
interrogate a variety of anthropological approaches to objects over
time, and
how to understand anthropology's responsibility to the public
through museum
practices.
Course
Readings
The
following required book is available for purchase at the WMU Bookstore:
Ivan Karp (ed.) 2006.
Museum
Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations.
Other readings will
be available
through Waldo Library's Electronic Reserve system with the
course password of 'objects'.
ASSIGNMENTS
Online
Postings Through elearning (25%):
This
course has an elearning component:
1)
You
are responsible for writing a short paragraph, thoughtful response to
each week's
readings. These are due each Monday by 8AM. Please plan your
time accordingly. If you work
all weekend, then get do the reading and post before the weekend. If
you don't
work during the weekend, post in the middle of the night if you like
but you
must post by MONDAY, 8AM.
2)
You
are also responsible for replying to someone else's posting each
week. This
just means engaging with your fellow students and responding to
something one
or a few of them have written. Your weekly response posting is due each
Tuesday
by 8AM.
The
point of these postings is for you to begin a dialogue with your fellow
students each week that will continue in the classroom. I want this to
be your
forum, so I will pop my head in and may refer to your postings in
class, but I
will not post to the board myself.
Grading-wise,
you will get 1 point per post and 1 point per response to another
student's
post. That should give you 2 points per week. Your grade will be a
simple
percentage of total posts you made out of total possible posts.
Mini-Assignments
(10%):
There will be five to ten credit-only mini-assignments, weighed thus:
0
missed = 100%; 1 missed = 93%; 2 missed = 83% 3 missed = 73%; 4 missed
= 63%; 5
or more missed = 0
Annotated
Bib (20%): This
involves writing two paragraphs each about four readings relating to
the
exhibit and you must do this no matter what role you play in the
project. You
will no doubt use class readings in your group project, but for this
assignment, use outside readings. The first paragraph
for each of the four readings will
be a brief summary. The second paragraph will be a critical response,
including
discussing how this reading contributes to your ideas for the
installation.
Semester
Project (45%):
One
requirement you all have is to visit at least one museum this
semester
that has an ethnographic component, on your own, and share the
experience with
the class. It would be terrific if some of you visited the new Museum
of the
American Indian in Washington, D.C. if you happen to be going to D.C.
at some
point. Chicago has the Field Museum and many other smaller and equally
large
museums with ethnographic components. There are museums close by in
Grand
Rapids, Ann Arbor, and so on. If you are totally unable to leave Kzoo,
there is
the Valley Museum. You will receive no project grade if you have
not
visited a museum and shared that experience in the first class
discussion after
your visit.
The
project:
As a
class, you will prepare a museum installation, which should be
exhibited during
exam week. The project should be flexible so that each person can make
a
contribution they have an interest in. Your contribution to the project
will
have to be clear and substantial. There are several components
required, and
you should divide the labor accordingly, probably by breaking into
three
working groups of design, catalog, and web (research, set-up/tear-down
should
be done by everyone). The groups should be interdependent. For example,
those
working on the catalog can assist and be assisted by the web group, and
the
design group needs to both share and draw ideas from the other groups.
Here are
the basic responsibilities:
1)
Research:
You will need to draw upon class readings and readings outside class
that
relate to the themes you have chosen for your installation. Every
single
participant needs to contribute to research.
2)
Design:
Everyone should contribute ideas to design but it will be easiest if a
smaller
group fine-tunes and implements it, asking other members of the class
for
objects, ideas, and assistance as necessary.
3)
Catalog:
A subgroup will prepare a catalog for the exhibit. The catalog is like
a brief
essay with sample images, highlighting key aspects of the exhibit.
4)
Web
version: A subgroup with appropriate skills will develop a website that
digitizes the catalog and additional materials from the exhibit. You
should add
images of the exhibit itself once it is up. Be sure to have a
references page
(suggested readings) and an acknowledgments page that lists all of you,
me, and
anyone else who contributed (including Sangren, if we house the exhibit
there).
5)
Set-Up,
Reception, Tear-Down: As a class, you should divide up the tasks
associated
with set-up, reception, and tear-down. Set-up is more work. Perhaps
those
assigned to tear-down will also be in charge of setting up the
reception. Keep
in mind that tear-down will happen after the semester is over, so it
should be
people available after finals or even at the beginning of next term if
the
exhibit space is available until then.
Semester
Project/Installation Grading Rubric (Total points out of 100 will be
multiplied
by 45% towards the total grade):
1)
Overall
Excellence and Slickness of Installation = 15pts
2)
Intellectual
Content, Relevance to Anthropological Thought = 15pts
3)
Coherence:
the hang-togetherness of the installation as a whole and of the catalog
and web
version in relation to the installation = 15pts
4)
Your
group's contribution (my evaluation of the details for each
individual group) =
55pts
Deadlines:
1)
Exhibit
Proposal Due Oct 13th. As a group, you need
to decide on a general theme and
basic plan for your exhibit by this date and share it in class, where
we will
do some additional brainstorming together.
2)
Annotated
Bib Due Nov 10th.
3)
Installation
Set-Up by Dec 14th, Reception 5-7:00 p.m., Dec. 15th.
Grading
Online
Postings
25%
Mini-Assignments
10%
Annotated
Bib
20%
Final
Project
45%
NO LATE
ONLINE POSTINGS WILL BE COUNTED. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.
Grading Key
All
quantitative semester grades are multiplied by the percentage of the
spread
they represent. Thus, if you have a 90 on online postings, multiplied
by 20% of
the spread, gives you 18. All grades thus calculated are added together
to
equal the total percentage out of one hundred. Your semester grade is
then
calculated as per the key below. Using this key and instructions, you
can keep
track of your own grade as the semester progresses, but always feel
free to ask
instructors for assistance in calculating it.
Grade
Scale for Final Grades
97-100
A+
94-96
A
87-93
BA
84-86
B
77-83
CB
74-76
C
67-73
DC
60-66
D
below 60
E
COURSE
SCHEDULE
PART
ONE: Orientations: Objects, Museums, Histories
Wk
1, Tuesday, September 8: Introduction to
course plan and requirements.
Wk
2, Tuesday September 15
(1) Read Spyer,
"Introduction" (pp. 1-11)
(2) Peter Pels in
Spyer, Border Fetishisms, Chapter Four: "The
Spirit of
the Matter: On Fetish, Rarity, Fact, and Fancy" (pp. 91-121);
(3) Appadurai
"Introduction to The Social Life of
Things."
Wk
3, Tuesday, September 22
(1) Appadurai
"Disjuncture and Difference in the Global
Cultural Economy."
(2) Introduction to Museum
Frictions (MF).
Wk
4, Tuesday, September 29
(1) "Exhibitionary Complexes" by Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in Museum
Frictions (MF)
(2)
"Exhibition, Difference, and
the Logic of Culture" by Tony Bennett in MF
Wk
5, Tuesday, October 6
(1)
Introduction to Raw Histories.
(2)
Chapter 3 in Raw Histories.
Wk
6, Tuesday, October 13
(1) "The Reappearance of the Authentic" by Martin Hall in MF
(2) "The World
as Marketplace: Commodification of the
Exotic at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago,
1893" by Curtis M. Hinsley
in Exhibiting Cultures (Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine, eds.).
!!PROPOSAL TO
PRESENT AND DISCUSS
IN CLASS!!
PART
TWO: Materializing Cultures: Agency, Objects, Context
Wk
7, Tuesday, October 20
(2) "Scent,
Sound and Synaesthesia: Intersensoriality
and Material Culture Theory" by David Howes. Pp. 161-172 In Handbook
of
Material Culture.
(2006).
(3) Chs. 1&2 from
The Sari (2003) by Daniel
Miller
(co-author)
Wk
8, Tuesday, October 27
(1)Chapter 4, "Latukuny"
in Miracles by Bilinda Straight
(2007)
(2) "The Betel
Bag" by Janet Hoskins (in Biographical
Objects)
(1998)
Wk
9, Tuesday, November 3
(1) "Kwaku's Car" by
Jojada Verrips and Birgit Meyer
in Car
Cultures (2001).
(2) "Powerful
Pictures: Popular Christian Aesthetics in
Southern Ghana" (2008). Journal of American Academy of Religion 76(1):
82-110.
(3) Concluding
Fragment from Miracles by Bilinda Straight
(2007)
Wk
10, Tuesday, November 10
(1) "Malangan:
Objects, Sacrifice, and the Production of
Memory" by Susanne Kuechler. American Ethnologist 14(4), 626-639
(1988).
(2) "Buy Me a Bride" by Ellen Schattschneider, American
Ethnologist (2001)
!!ANNOTATED BIB
DUE IN CLASS!!
Part
Three: And Back to Museums: Contexts, Re-Contexts, De-Contexts
Wk
11, Tuesday, November 17
(1)"Bones of
Contention" by Moira G. Simpson (2001). Pp.
173-189 In Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era. Routledge.
(2)"Becoming
American or Becoming Indian? NAGPRA,
Kennewick, and Cultural Affiliation" by Joe Watkins (2004)
Journal of Social
Archaeology 4(1): 60-80.
Wk
12, Tuesday, November 24
(1)"World
Heritage and Cultural Economics" by
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in MF
(2)"Community
Museums, Memory Politics, and Social
Transformation in South Africa: Histories, Possibilities, and
Limits" by Ciraj
Rassool in MF
Wk
13, Tuesday, December 1
(1)"The Ancient
City Walls of Great Benin: Colonialism,
Urban Heritiage and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Nigeria"
by Flora
Edouwaye S. Kaplan In Heritage and Identity in the Twenty-First Century
(Museum
Meanings). Marta Anico and Elsa Peralta (eds.) (2009).
(2)"Transforming
Museums on Postapartheid Tourist Routes"
by Leslie Witz in MF.
Wk
14, Tuesday, December 8
(1)"Revisiting
the Old Plantation: Reparations,
Reconciliation, and Museumizing American Slavery" by Fath Davis
Ruffins in MF.
(2)"The Museum
Outdoors: Heritage, Cattle, and Permeable
Borders in the Southwestern Kruger National Park" by David Bunn
in MF.
(3) Document: Baghdad
Lions to be Relocated to South
Africa (p. 392 in MF)
Monday,
December 14: Installation is
set up. Tues, Dec 15: Reception 5-7:00 p.m.