Prophets and Ghosts - The Story of Salvage Anthropology

Nineteenth-century ¿salvage anthropology¿ preserved millions of Indigenous objects, sources of knowledge invaluable to researchers and the public. But many of these objects were stolen, and for decades exhibited as proof of cultural evolution. Samuel Redman details the tangled history and explores how we might contend with such collections today.

About the author

Samuel J. Redman is the author of Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums, named a Nature Top 20 Book and a Smithsonian Top History Book. A specialist in American cultural and museum history, he is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has worked at the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Field Museum in Chicago.

Summary

Nineteenth-century “salvage anthropology” preserved millions of Indigenous objects, sources of knowledge invaluable to researchers and the public. But many of these objects were stolen, and for decades exhibited as proof of cultural evolution. Samuel Redman details the tangled history and explores how we might contend with such collections today.

Product details

• Authors: Samuel J. Redman
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2021
• EAN: 9780674979574
• ISBN: 978-0-674-97957-4
• No. of pages: 328
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Humanities (general); Social & cultural history, ART / Museum Studies, HISTORY / United States / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Indigenous Peoples, Social and cultural history, Social and cultural anthropology, History of the Americas, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies, HISTORY / Indigenous Peoples in the Americas