Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study

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Smithsonian Institution, Aug 15, 2017 - Art - 312 pages
This book examines the historical context of museums, their collections, and the objects that form them. Susan M. Pearce probes the psychological and social reasons that people collect and identifies three modes of collecting: collecting as souvenirs, as fetishes, and as systematic assemblages. She considers how museum professionals set policies of collection management; acquire, study, and exhibit objects; and make meaning of the objects in their care. Pearce also explores the ideological relationship between museums and their collections and the intellectual and social relationships of museums to the public.
 

Contents

Cover
Objects Inside and Outside Museums
Body and Soul
Shaping the World
the Intellectual Rationale
Making Museum Meanings
Meaning as Function
Meaning as Structure
Meaning in History
Objects in Action
Problems of Power
Projects and Prospects
Bibliography
About the Author
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About the author (2017)

Susan M. Pearce is professor of museum studies and director of the department of museum studies at the University of Leicester. She is the editor of Museum Studies in Material Culture (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), and the author of Archaeological Curatorship (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990) and On Collecting (1995).

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