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OverviewRethinking Evolution in the Museum explores the ways diverse natural history museum audiences imagine their evolutionary heritage. In particular, the book considers how the meanings constructed by audiences of museum exhibitions are a product of dynamic interplay between museum iconography and powerful images museum visitors bring with them to the museum. In doing so, the book illustrates how the preconceived images held by museum audiences about anthropology, Africa, and the museum itself strongly impact the human origins exhibition experience. Although museological theory has come increasingly to recognize that museum audiences ‘make meaning’ in exhibitions, or make their own complex interpretations of museum exhibitions, few scholars have explicitly asked how. Rethinking Evolution in the Museum, however, provides a rare window into visitor perceptions at four world-class museums—the Natural History Museum and Horniman Museum in London, the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Through rigorous and novel mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) covering nearly 500 museum visitors, this innovative study shows that audiences of human origins exhibitions interpret evolution exhibitions through a profoundly complex convergence of personal, political, intellectual, emotional and cultural interpretive strategies. This book also reveals that natural history museum visitors often respond to museum exhibitions similarly because they use common cultural tools picked up from globalized popular media circulating outside of the museum. One tool of particular interest is the notion that human evolution has proceeded linearly from a bestial African prehistory to a civilized European present. Despite critical growths in anthropological science and museum displays, the outdated Victorian progress motif lingers persistently in popular media and the popular imagination. Rethinking Evolution in the Museum sheds light on our relationship with natural history museums and will be crucial to those people interested in understanding the connection between the visitor, the museum and media culture outside of the museum context. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Monique ScottPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd Imprint: Routledge Dimensions: Width: 17.40cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 24.60cm Weight: 0.562kg ISBN: 9780415405393ISBN 10: 0415405394 Pages: 208 Publication Date: 15 November 2007 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Up From Africa 2. Evolving into the Familiar 3. Revisiting Victorian Progress 4. Envisioning Our Evolutionary Beginnings 5. Envisioning Our Evolutionary Destinies 6. The Black Counter-Narrative 7. ‘Out of Africa’ in Kenya Postscript: the big pictureReviewsAuthor InformationMonique Scott is a physical anthropologist with a specialty in museum education. She currently serves as an evolutionary content specialist for the American Museum of Natural History’s education department. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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