Museums as Ritual Sites by Wijnia, Lieke; S. Bielo, James;

Short description:

Museums as Ritual Sites critically examines the assumption that museums inherently function as ritual sites and, in turn, are poised to exert influence on cultural and societal change.

Long description:

Museums as Ritual Sites critically examines the assumption that museums inherently function as ritual sites and, in turn, are poised to exert influence on cultural and societal change.

Bringing together a diverse, international group of interdisciplinary scholars and curators, the volume celebrates and critically engages with Carol Duncan’s seminal work, Civilizing Rituals. Presenting a wide-ranging exploration of how museums function as liminal zones in broader societal contexts, the book discusses major topics identified as functioning at the heart of the above-mentioned paradigm shift:  diversity and inclusion, consumption, religion, and tradition. These topics are studied through the lens of their ritual implications in museum practice. Presenting case studies on ethnographic, art, history, community, and memorial practices in museums, the book reflects the diversity of the contemporary international museum field. As such, the volume presents a critical and updated revision of the ritual perspective on museums - both as it was presented by Duncan and as it has since been developed in the field of museum studies.

Museums as Ritual Sites will be essential reading for academics and students working in museum studies, heritage studies, cultural anthropology, religious studies, and ritual studies.  Museums as Ritual Sites will also be of interest to those working across the humanities and social sciences who are interested in the intersection of museums or archives with indigeneity and decolonization.

Table of Contents:

The Enduring Value of Museum Ritual: Volume Introduction; Part 1. Ritualizing Diversity and Inclusion; 1. Living with Others: Fashioning a Post-Secular Citizen in the British Museum; 2. Remediating Colonialism: Stories of Gold in Harvard’s Natural History Museum; 3. (Un)Civilizing Rituals: Challenging Cultural Memory at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights; Part 2. Rituals of Consumption; 4. Visiting Helene: Jachthuis Sint Hubertus at the Crux of the Kröller-Müller Donor Memorial; 5. Corporate Racial Citizenship: How Black Cultural Patronage Reinforces Capitalism; 6. Like-able Me, Like-able There: Instagram Selfie-Taking as Ritual Practice; Part 3. (Re)Presenting and Interrogating the Sacred; 7. The Many Faces of Mary Magdalene: Curatorially Compared, Ritually Construed; 8. Scenes of Ritual Intimacy: Museums and the Display of Magical Practice; 9. Reassembling the Sacred in Museums: Two Case Studies from Korea; Part 4. Ritual Tradition: Constraint and Opportunity; 10. Rituals after Ruin: The Memorialisation of the University of Cape Town Jagger Library; 11. Rituals of Erasure and Transcendence: Exhibiting Indigenous Objects in Art Museums; 12. Curating Rituals: The Role of Curators in Shaping Narratives of Culture