Museums & the Making of "Ourselves"
Subtitle: The Role of Objects in National Identity
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: Leicester University Press; UNKNO
Published: January 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 448
ISBN-13: 9780718500399
Subjects: Cultural studies; Museums & Museology; Social, group or collective psychology; General; Reference
Description: This volume presents 14 original case studies from as many countries, written by archaeologists, art historians, historians, and museologists. It sees museums, their collections, and exhibitions as both products and agents of social change, and suggests museums themselves be analysed as important social institutions--where contested access to means of publicly defining self, cultural and national identity takes place--among elites, would-be elites, ethnic, and other constituent groups in society. Also chronicled are the important roles objects play in forging nation-states, in promoting national agendas, and in embodying the values and very "idea" of a group or a people.