Cataloguing Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation

摘要

At its most basic level, Hannah Turner’s Cataloguing Culture: Legacies of Colonialismin Museum Documentation could be understood as a case history of documentarypractices of the Department of Anthropology of the United States SmithsonianNational Museum of Natural History (NMNH) from its origins to the present day. Atleast, this is what its Cataloging-in-Publication data suggests with the subdivision“Case studies” for each of its five subject headings assigned: “National Museum ofNatural History (U.S.); Museums - Collection management; Ethnologic museums andcollections; Indians of North America - Material culture; and Museums and Indians.”In fact, Cataloguing Culture’s case study is a critical telescope that Turner turns upona broad range of cataloging practices and perspectives common in galleries, libraries,archives, museums, and special collections (GLAMS).