Museum Anthropology
Museum Anthropology cross-cuts all of the sub-disciplines in anthropology. Some individuals working in this area are based out of academic positions in colleges and universities, while others work within a museum setting. Museum anthropologists also work from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives.
Areas of specialization include:
- collections-based scholarship;
- the curation and exhibition of cultural, archaeological, linguistic or biological collections;
- research which contextualizes museums as social institutions (past and present);
- material culture studies;
- and cultural heritage/tourism.
Museum Anthropology also tends to be cross-disciplinary with areas such as history, art history, Indigenous studies, folklore, and the natural sciences.
For those working within museums, Museum Anthropology tends to take on a more applied angle: reaching the public and crafting multi-vocal exhibition narratives. Similarly, for those academics who train museum professionals, the focus is on education, outreach
Careers
There are a variety of career paths in Museum Anthropology. Most tend to be outside of academia, and
Some careers in this field include:
- Curatorial Assistant
- Docent
- Exhibition Coordinator/Design
- Interpretive Ranger
- Museum Administration
- Museum Curator
- Museum Educator
- Museum Technician
- Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Coordinator
- University Professor
Suggested anthropology courses
- The Indians of North America (311)
- Material Worlds of the Middle Ages (318)
- Material Life and Culture in Europe 1500-1800 (319)
- Archaeological Field Methods (321)
- Introduction to Archaeology Research Design and Methods (322)
- Archaeological Survey Methods (324)
- Archaeological Methods Laboratory (325)
- The Archaeology of Ethnicity in America (327)
- The Maya (328)
- Anthropology of Race (343)
- Environmental Anthropology (383)
- Slavery’s Material Record (384)
- Topics in Anthropology: (390)
- Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean
- A course taught at the Field Museum by a museum curator
- Archaeology, Ethics, and Contemporary Society (391)
- Advanced Archaeological Field Methods (396)
Suggested related courses
- Introduction to African Art (Art History 220)
- Ancient Art (Art History 310)
- Art of Africa (Art History 386)
- Special Topics in Non-Euro-American Art (Art History 389)
- Special Topics in Arts of Asia and the Middle East (Art History 389)
- Museums (Art History 395)
- Early Western Civilization (Classics 210)
- Classical Greece (Classics 211)
- Roman Civilization (Classics 212)
- American Cultural History (History 317)
- A History of American Society (History 321)
- Technology: History, Society, and Economy (History 375)
- Topics in the Humanities (Humanities 301)
- Sociology of the Arts (Sociology 350)