Ethnography and art at the British Museum’s Museum of Mankind

Burt, Ben

Ethnography and art at the British Museum’s Museum of Mankind

Resource type

Book chapter

Creator (person)

Burt, Ben

Date published

2025

Abstract

Since the later part of the twentieth century, ethnographic museums have come under increasing scrutiny, and many have reflected on and changed their presentation as they questioned collections so often made by colonial officials and explorers. Now is a good time to explore whether new developments in display and cultural politics provide a viable future for ethnographic museums. In particular, policies for restitution by colonial era institutions create a changed landscape for ethnographic display both in the countries from which they originate and in former colonising states. Reframing the Ethnographic Museum presents a wide range of cultural settings across the world where ethnographic displays have appeared in their local circumstances. Non-European museum strategies raise new problems but also new solutions. Nationalism has been especially significant in museology in Asia, and in Africa new museum objectives have emerged. They share a problematic future in a digital age when the aura of artefacts is challenged by digital repositories and a public less willing to travel to visit original objects. Authors in this book grapple with the new complexities facing them as curators in the contemporary world. This chapter looks at ethnography and art at the British Museum's Museum of Mankind.