Behind the Scenes at the Horniman - Life in the Kalahari Desert

Hugh Brody, Thursday 1st May 2014. 7pm-8pm. Horniman Museum.

Anthropologist, film-maker and activist Hugh Brody has worked for over a decade with the San people of the Kalahari Desert. At this new Behind the Scenes event, Hugh will guide us through ideas of homeland and the realities of land claims using the Horniman’s wonderful collection of San objects. Hugh will preview some of his most recent filmmaking and let us in on his latest discoveries made alongside the Khomani San. For full details about this event visit the Horniman Museum website. 

Call for expressions of interest ­seminars or events with a focus on anthropology in action

Anthropology in Action has a small sum of money saved which we would like to use to support events and activities relevant to our aims. If you are interested in organizing a relevant event or seminar, please contact us with an outline proposal. We encourage you to think creatively about what 'anthropology in action' means and the sorts of participants that could be involved - for example, events could be mixed media and include participants who engage with anthropology but are not necessarily anthropologists.

Proposals will be considered by the editorial board of Anthropology in Action and the ASA Apply network convenors on the following basis:

The event is relevant to our aims and remit, with a focus on 'engaged' anthropology.

·       The organisers will submit an event report to the journal for the issue following the event, in a format agreed with the editorial board.

·       The geographical location is open.

·        The upper limit of funds to be applied for will be £300. A budget should be submitted to show how the money applied for will be spent.

The proposal must explain how the event will generate an article or special issue for the journal.

Proposals should be sent to me Christine McCourt by the 30th of April 2014

Dr Christine McCourt
Editor, Anthropology in Action

Islamic Art Subject Specialist Network survey

The newly-established Subject Specialist Network (SSN) for Islamic Art and Material Culture would like to invite you to participate in the Islamic Mapping Project. This important and wide-ranging survey aims to gather, for the first time, comprehensive data on the contents and locations of public collections of Islamic art and material culture in the UK and Ireland, however large or small. The survey has a very broad focus which includes all ethnographic material from the Middle East/Islamic lands, and all ethnographic material from diaspora Muslim communities including those in the UK.

Through this survey we also hope to identify the types of support that may be needed among all collections, but especially those with limited resources, staff, or specialist curatorship. This will help the SSN identify areas of need, allowing us to develop targeted workshops and seminars which will support museum professionals working with collections that include Islamic art and material culture.

Results of the survey will be published on the SSN’s new website (to be launched in 2014), where a dedicated series of pages will present the information gathered about collections around the country.

So, if assessing your institution's collection of Islamic art and material culture has long been on the 'To Do' list, now is the moment to engage with the community of Islamic art specialists nationwide by completing this questionnaire. 

To find out more and to participate in this unique effort to map all public Islamic collections in the UK, please email islamicmappingproject@gmail.com to be sent a unique link to the survey questionnaire. Support with filling in the questionnaire and assistance with identifying any Islamic material in the collections you work with is readily available by contacting the same address.

Please note that the deadline for participation in the survey is late April.

(Mis-)Representing Cultures and Objects workshop

Registration is now open for the workshop (Mis-)Representing Cultures and Objects at the University of Stirling.

The workshop is one of the concluding elements of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award entitled Tibetan Collections in Scotland 1890-1930: using material culture to establish a critical historiography of missionary and military intent. The project examined the ways in which, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tibetan artefacts were collected and displayed in Scottish museums, particularly in the Edinburgh museum (now National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh).

The Principal Investigator was Dr Timothy Fitzgerald (University of Stirling), with Dr Henrietta Lidchi (National Museums Scotland), and Dr Michael Marten (University of Stirling). The bulk of the research was carried by Inbal Livne, who will shortly be awarded her PhD.

The workshop will offer an opportunity to find out more about the CDA project, as well as exploring some of the issues that arose from it, in particular examining ways in which 

(mis-)representations of cultures and objects are connected and influence one another. We therefore welcome Tibet specialists, but also scholars working in a wide variety of disciplinary and geographic fields who can contribute something to the debate as it relates to the museum sector.

Speakers include:

Inbal Livne – Tibetan Collections in Scotland 1890-1930: using material culture to establish a critical historiography of missionary and military intent Timothy Fitzgerald/Henrie Lidchi

Dr Diana Lange – Dundee and the World”: The Collection(s) of Thomas Alexander Wise (1802-1889)

Lydia Hauth – Emic Perspectives: Community Participation in Ethnographic Museums

Emma Martin – The Barmiak Lama came to explain the meaning of those Tibetan curios which were concerned with religion’. How a colonial officer’s lessons in Tibetan materialised.

Rachel Hand – ‘Offending Our Eyes’: The ethnographic collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

Dr Jennifer Way – Resembling the Collection: Vietnamese Handicraft at the Smithsonian, ca 1962-

Dr Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar Saenz - Dictionaries of minority languages as ‘exhibits’ – From colonialism to the decolonisation of knowledge

Dr Deborah Sutton – The Plastic Idea: the attributes of Hindu Art in the twentieth century

Rebecca Loder-Neuhold – “The only Africa museum in the Mühlviertel…” Mission museums in German speaking countries

For registration details please visit the website. 

Curating Human Remains in UK Museums workshop

Human Remains Subject Specialist Network and Museum Ethnographers Group

Wednesday 26 February 2014, Royal College of Surgeons, London

More than 30 curators, conservators, archaeologists and others came together in the appropriate environment of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) for a workshop on curating human remains in UK museums. The session was organised by the Human Remains Subject Specialist Network (SSN) in partnership with the Museum Ethnographers Group. Contributors included some of the most experienced and specialist practitioners in the field.

The first two presentations, led by Margaret Clegg from the Human Remains Unit at the Natural History Museum (NHM) and Myra Giesen from Newcastle University, provided a useful introduction to the ethical and legislative framework surrounding the curation of remains. Myra, in discussing the Human Tissue Act and 2005 DCMS‘Guidance’ document and drawing on her experience of advising North American museums in NAGPRA compliance, had one key message: ‘Read the Law!’. Heather Bonney (NHM) and Carina Phillips (RCS) talked about the challenges of collections management and documentation regarding human remains in their respective institutions.

In the afternoon conservator Chris Collins (NHM) outlined the general principles of conservation regarding human remains (respect; minimal intervention; acknowledgement of stakeholder wishes) before discussing a fascinating project the NHM had been involved in. Working for the Rwandan government, NHM conservators provided technical assistance to the process of creating several memorials dedicated to victims of the 1994 genocide, which included the remains of some of these. The session was a useful reminder of the vulnerability of human remains to political interest and of how ‘local’ interests concerning remains may differ significantly from any ‘national’ agenda. Following Chris, Gill Comerford (NHM) talked about best practice storage techniques and materials. While she acknowledged the greater resources that the NHM can command in this respect than most other museums, there was much interest amongst participants in the conservation-grade materials and packaging used. The final session was a practical session led by Rebecca Redfern and Jelena Bekvalac (both Museum of London) which gave participants a chance to appropriately repack archaeological human remains.

Workshop participants during the practical session

The workshop drew participants from a wide range of disciplines. The fact that places filled so quickly – as did a waiting list – evidences a sectoral need and interest in building confidence in curating human remains. After a period of relative inactivity, the Human Remains SSN is now engaged in drawing up a constitution so that it can offer a more regular programme of events and activity. In the meantime its organisers are keen to support UK museum staff working with human remains in whatever way they can. Contact details can be found on the SSN website as, shortly, will copies of presentations given on the day.

Helen Mears

MEG Events Officer& Keeper of World Art, Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Fijian barkcloth unwrapped...

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Saturday 15 March, 11.00 - 4.00

Small Exam Hall, Arts School (two minutes walk from MAA)

 For the first time in a generation a large piece of barkcloth from MAA's collection will be on display in Cambridge. Nearly 15 metres in length, this barkcloth was part of a presentation by the Tui Cakau to Sir Arthur Gordon (the first British Governor of Fiji), as part of the conclusion of the Great Council of Chiefs Meeting on 12 December 1876. See the barkcloth and take part in drop-in family activities to explore the patterns. In association with MAA's exhibition "Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji".