Document Type
Other
Date of this Version
4-2015
Publication Source
Penn Museum Blog
Abstract
This semester, students in my Anthropology of Museums class learned new methods for analyzing objects in museum collections by using both “deep description” and “object reflexivity.” Students were trained to combine material analysis, ethnographic data, archival research, and critical scholarship to identify and document object histories. They also gained practice in examining methods of construction, curation, and display that reflect the shifting historical relations among Indigenous people and Indigenous objects in museums. As a result, these students generated thoughtful insights that cast new light on old objects in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Recommended Citation
Bruchac, M. (2015). Deep Description and Reflexivity: Methods for Recovering Object Histories. Penn Museum Blog, Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/147
Date Posted: 23 December 2016