Pragmatic Imagination and the New Museum Anthropology shifts museum anthropology’s relationship to the broader field from marginal to central by revealing the sophisticated transdisciplinary praxis (theory + practice) at the heart of current museum anthropologies. The book features international case studies that operate at the interfaces of critical museology, anthropology, material culture studies, art practice, and more. The theory of pragmatics proposes that meaning-making is collaborative and best evaluated through its impact in the world. Collectively the chapters in this volume evidence a ‘pragmatic imagination’ at work as museum anthropology practitioners ingeniously combine inventiveness (the possible) and practicality (the actual) in ways that drive the field forward. Defining museum anthropology as a pragmatic practice explicitly theorizes this work in order to mark its significance; demystify its processes of knowledge production; connect it more readily to debates within and beyond anthropology; and facilitate critique.

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Pragmatic Imagination and the New Museum Anthropology shifts museum anthropology’s relationship to the broader field from marginal to central by revealing the sophisticated transdisciplinary praxis (theory + practice) at the heart of current museum anthropologies

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Preface

1 Introduction

Christina J. Hodge and Christina Kreps

Part I Introduction Pragmatics of Documentation

2 The Role of Indigenous Archives and Their Pragmatic Imaginings in the New Museum Anthropology

Diana E. Marsh

3 The Pragmatics of Decolonizing Metadata: Praxes of 3D Digitization

Christina J. Hodge

4 Alternative Voices and Images of Ecotourism from La Ventanilla, Mexico: Reflections on a Neopragmatist-inspired Approach to Participatory Action Museography

W. Warner Wood

Part II Introduction Pragmatics of Restitution

5 Museum Anthropology in an Age of Reconciliation

Cara Krmpotich

6 A Pragmatic Approach to Reconciliation: Thoughts on Transforming Repatriation Practice

Margaret M. Bruchac

7 Unearthing Colonial Complicities in Maasai Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, Laura N. K. Van Broekhoven

8 Like a Bridge over Troubled Water?: Fieldwork, Publicly-engaged Scholarship, and Trafficked Indonesian Mortuary Materials

Kathleen M. Adams

Part III Introduction Pragmatics of Counter-narrative

9 Missionaries, Anthropologists, Museums: Instrumentalism and Lessons for Progressive Museology

Christina Kreps

10 European Museum Collections and Knowledge Co-production: Developing a Praxis

Giovanna Vitelli

11 Teaching Museum Curation and Cultural Equity by Design, Amanda J. Guzmán

Carolyn Smith, and Rosemary A. Joyce

12 Artistic Explorations of Place: Creative Pragmatism, Anthropology, and University Museums

Esteban M. Gómez and Bonnie J. Clark

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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780367641856
Publisert
2025-07-30
Utgiver
Taylor & Francis Ltd; Routledge
Vekt
540 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
276

Om bidragsyterne

Christina J. Hodge is Associate Director of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Christina Kreps is Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Museum of Anthropology and Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Denver in Colorado.