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Academic Year 2005/2006

Monuments and Museums: Contestation and Consent in the Public Sphere
ANTH 225 FA

This course examines the role played by monuments and museums in the lives of nations and citizens, focusing on how these institutions both reflect and define our understandings of the past, of others, and of ourselves. Using case studies such as Colonial Williamsburg, Ground Zero, the US Holocaust Museum, Stonehenge, and the National Mall in Washington, DC, this course examines the political lives of monuments and museums as they represent not only memories and values held in the national consciousness (war memorials), but also distant times, places, and peoples (as in archaeological monuments; natural history or ethnological museums). While their ideologies are typically dedicated toward the formation of public consent, monuments and museums are also spaces of cultural, historical, and legal contestation. Therefore, the course also explores debates between anthropologists, collectors, government agencies and private citizens (particularly indigenous peoples) over the legitimacy of museum collections, whether artworks or human remains.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ANTH    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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