Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Portraits With A Posthumous Voice: Reinforcing And Contesting Social Norms In The Heterotopic Museum And Cemetery, Matthew J. Crissey

Museum Studies Theses

Abstract

The following paper qualitatively analyzes and documents over 500 memorial-photographs/etched portraits on tombstones in ten Western New York cemeteries. This paper covers fourteen topics, ranging from religion to gang-violence. A juxtaposition of portraits exhibited within the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery with memorial-portraits on tombstones revealed heterotopic environments creating a public forum enabling the reinforcing or contestation of social ideologies. In other words, the author observed the similarities of identities and social norms publicly expressed on tombstones and gallery portraits.

A Social Constructionist approach enabled the study to examine how one social phenomenon contributes to the shaping of a culture. …

Curating A Nation: The Role Of Asia’S Twenty-First Century Museums In Constructing National Narratives, Lee Nelson

Pac Rim Posters

Museums of the modern world act to preserve and promote cultural heritage, science, and art. Within the continent of Asia, museums have been crucial foci for various nations’ cultural ministries. By analyzing the missions of specific museums with a critical lens, the objective of national identity and narrative building becomes exposed in the decisions of museums’ exhibits and curations. With having used ethnographic methods and scholarly research concerning national museums in the countries of Mongolia, Japan, China, Thailand, and India, I argue that museums serve as mediums of communication for higher political and cultural institutions to foster, construct, and manipulate …

“After-Ozymandias”: The Colonization Of Symbols And The American Monument, H. R. Membreno-Canales

Theses and Dissertations

After-Ozymandias examines the visual rhetoric of American patriotism through its many symbols, including flags and monuments. My thesis project consists of photographs of empty plinths, objects, products and archival materials. Countless relics remain today memorializing leaders and empires that inevitably declined, from antiquity to modern times. Looking back at distant history feels like a luxury, though: the question for our time in America is whether we have the strength of mind as a society to scrutinize our history, warts and all.

Cherchant Toujours La Paix: Le Systeme Endogene De La Resolution Des Conflits À Batoufam, Becky Sigman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This dissertation will explore two subjects: an internship done with the chiefdom of Batoufam and a research project about the endogenous system of conflict resolution in Batoufam. The first part will illustrate the internship done at the museum of the chiefdom. Here will be described the institution, the work accomplished, and an analysis of the experience. In the second part will be asked the research question “what is the endogenous system of conflict resolution of Batoufam and how has it adapted in the context of the imposition of westernization?” After doing a literature review and explaining the methodology of the …

Museum Of Modern-Day Slavery: A Photo Essay, Micah Gamboa

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A photo essay from the Museum of Modern-Day Slavery in Houston, Texas, with photographs of rooms, entrances, and storage spaces in brothels following raids, including artifacts of the trade found at the scenes are documented. Photographs include brothels, bars, and strip clubs where Korean women and Mexican women were exploited. Photographs from the Mexican-American border document the violence the victims are subjected to during their journey.

Ua1c6/8 Exhibit Photos, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Images of exhibits at Western Kentucky University.