ANTHROP 3PD3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Civilizing Mission, Victoria And Albert Museum, Ethnology
18 Apr 2018
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Representing others and situating knowledge: the case of museums. Linked with colonialism and began as cabinets of curiosity . Otherness is central to the museum project. In 1700"s and 1800"s were viewed as civilizing projects; means of discipline (foucault) Places for the display of the unusual and the exotic. Entertainment under the guise of ethnology a type of spectacle. Indian objects of rude workmanship : yet british can learn from, and improve upon, these technologies/crafts, colonial and indian exhibition , goal to provide visual proof of the commercial wealth and power of. Indian weaving, copper and silversmiths; pottery and clay work; architecture: genuine craftspeople brought from india and shown to be hard at work , staged indianness, serving up familiar representations of colonial exoticism that british patrons expect. 1870"s-mid-1880"s; increasing academic and popular scholarship/interpretation of items and thus control over the other. Strategies of hyper-realism, detailed labeling and classification; narratives explaining items; elaborate reconstructions.
