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For some time now, museums have been recognized as important institutions of western cultural and social life. The idea of the museum as a ritual site is fairly new and has been applied to the art museums in Europe and the United States so far. This volume expands it by exploring a range of contemporary museums in Europe and Africa. The case studies examine the different ways in which various actors involved in cultural production dramatize and ritualize such sites. It turns out that not only museum specialists, but visitors themselves are engaged in complex performances and experiences that make use of museums in often unexpected ways.
Mary Bouquet teaches Cultural Anthropology and Museum Studies at Utrecht University College. Her recent publications include Academic Anthropology and the Museum, also published by Berghahn Books (2001).
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Science, Magic and Religion: the Ritual Processes of Museum Magic
Mary Bouquet and Nuno Porto
PART I: OBJECTS OF SCIENCE? BABY AND THE MUMMIES
Chapter 1. Memorialising the Future: the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
Penelope Harvey
Chapter 2. Unwrapping Mummies and Telling their Stories: Egyptian Mummies in Museum Rhetoric
Anna Wieczorkiewicz
PART II: SITE SPECIFICS: THE CASE OF TERVUREN
Chapter 3. Congo-Vision
Barbara Saunders
Chapter 4. The Scourge of Chief Kansabala: the Ritual Life of Two Congolese Masterpieces at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (1884-2001)
Boris Wastiau
PART III: ENCOUNTERS, PERFORMANCES AND UNPREDICTABLES
Chapter 5. Paradise in the Making at Artis Zoo, Amsterdam
Natasha Silva
Chapter 6. The Natural Magic of Monte San Giovanni: Authority, Authenticity and Ritual in Sardinia
Tracey Heatherington
Chapter 7. The Performance of Heritage in a Reconstructed, Post-Apartheid Museum in Namibia
Ian Fairweather
Chapter 8. Haunted Art: Visiting an Exhibit in Weimar
Barbara Wolbert
PART IV: DILEMMAS OF ENCHANTMENT
Chapter 9. Enchantment and its Dilemmas: the Museum as a Ritual Site
Sharon Macdonald
Notes on Contributors
Index