Ebook: The Anthropologist as Curator

Can the ethnographer learn from the managing skills developed by curators? Are there skills to be learned by anthropologists from curators in relation to mediation? Are the micro-politics of mediation between institutions, communities, and different kinds of agent something for consideration in anthropological study? Sansi has curated here a collection of international scholars working at the intersection of anthropology and museum studies to explore these questions, amongst others. The essays challenge what it means to do ethnographic work and the very definition of the discipline of anthropology in light of what it means to work as a curator. Using a variety of angles, including perspectives from anthropologists who have set up their own exhibitions, those who have conducted fieldwork on the arts and collecting practices, and contributors who are currently working in a curatorial capacity at a museum, the chapters look at what the task of the ethnographer is in managing difference, and mediating between different things. The chapters give rise to questions including: can the ethnographer learn from the managing skills developed by curators? Are there skills to be learned by anthropologists from curators in relation to mediation? Are the micro-politics of mediation between institutions, communities, and different kinds of agent something for consideration in anthropological study? Including contributions from Arnd Schneider, Chris Wright and Tim Ingold, this book suggests a new way of thinking about anthropological practice. With case studies from the US, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, India and Japan, the book represents an international perspective and is relevant to students and scholars of anthropology, museum studies, curatorial studies and heritage studies.