The Museum of Other People

March 1, 2024
How to exhibit humankind. British anthropologist Kuper brings an authoritative perspective to his vigorous examination of ethnography and anthropology museums, which emerged in Europe and the U.S. in the mid-1800s. These venues displayed "an exotic world of 'primitive' or 'tribal' peoples who lived far away or long ago." As European nations expanded their empires into Oceania and Africa and the U.S. extended itself west of the Mississippi, collectors made off with all manner of artifacts. Early British, French, and German museums often reflected a collector's vision and the sheer abundance of their discoveries. Museums presented not only cabinets of curiosities and pillaged souvenirs, but evidence of the superiority of civilized cultures--evidence, that is, of Western progress from savage origins. The advent of evolutionary theory, though controversial, led some museums to reconsider that idea, organizing collections into cultural or geographical areas rather than on a timeline. Gradually, museums came to rely on anthropologists and ethnographers, although experts often clashed over the meaning of artifacts and the mission of a museum itself. Kuper's deeply researched history is enlivened with sharply delineated profiles of figures such as anti-Darwinist Louis Agassiz, naturalist Jeffries Wyman, and James Smithson, the illegitimate son of a British aristocrat who willed his small fortune to the U.S. for the establishment of an institution devoted to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." After much haggling, Congress agreed to fund the Smithsonian Institution. The intellectual and political debates that roiled museums grew heated by the 1960s, when a "cauldron of controversy" arose "about race, colonialism, cultural appropriation and the very nature of scientific authority." Claims for restitution of artifacts and debate over scholarship versus native expertise continue to vex curators. Strongly on the side of scholarship, Kuper advocates for cosmopolitan museums that can transcend "ethnic and national identities" and "challenge boundaries." A vibrant cultural history.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2024

Anthropologist Kuper (Anthropology and Anthropologists) presents a nuanced, informative look at the history, development, and future of museums of anthropology and ethnology in Europe and the Americas. The establishment of famous museums and the formative work of early anthropologists are balanced with frank discussions about artifacts looted during colonial conquests, along with the racist underpinning of exhibits that contrasted "primitive" Indigenous societies with European and Euro-American "civilization." Kuper shows how the anti-colonial and civil rights movements of the 20th century forced museums to reevaluate their missions and presentations. He also reveals how some museums, in an effort to atone for past practices, have erred in the opposite extreme, sidelining anthropological data, ceding exhibition decisions to private sponsors, and avoiding controversial topics out of fear that they'll offend somebody. The solution, he argues, is not a wholesale repatriation of artifacts but greater contextualization, balance, and transparency in exhibitions. VERDICT This highly recommended work about anthropological museums and creating culturally appropriate exhibits challenges preconceptions and encourages readers to think critically about this complex and important issue.--Sara Shreve

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 6, 2024
Since early 2024, museums across the U.S. have, in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, papered over display cases filled with Native American objects or emptied them entirely as part of a larger push to contend with the country's colonial past and present. Ethnography museums are themselves artifacts of this history, and in his new book, anthropologist Kuper traces their late eighteenth-century origins, nineteenth- and twentieth-century evolutions, and twenty-first-century role, reputation, and purpose. His account is chock-full of punchy anecdotes about how European colonizers collected and displayed objects from the colonies. Kuper asks questions and withholds much critique or even analysis until the book's final chapter. There, his narrative culminates in the assertions that experts have specialized knowledge that members of an identity group do not, and European and North American encyclopedic museums may have their origins in violence and racism, but they also have remarkable collections of objects that can be used to relay comparative histories of transformation and exchange, unlocking nuanced insights into global cultures past and present.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.