Books in the Museums and Collections series

In the late-nineteenth century, British travelers to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands compiled wide-ranging collections of material culture for scientific instruction and personal satisfaction. Colonial Collecting and Display follows the compelling history of a particular set of such objects, tracing their physical and conceptual transformation from objects of indigenous use to accessioned objects in a museum collection in the south of England. This first study dedicated to the historical collecting and display of the Islands' material cultures develops a new analysis of colonial discourse, using a material culture-led approach to reconceptualize imperial relationships between Andamanese, Nicobarese, and British communities, both in the Bay of Bengal and on British soil. It critiques established conceptions of the act of collecting, arguing for recognition of how indigenous makers and consumers impacted upon "e;British"e; collection practices, and querying the notion of a homogenous British approach to material culture from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Indigenous museums and cultural centres have sprung up across the developing world, and particularly in the Southwest Pacific. This book examines how museums have evolved particularly in the non-western world to incorporate the present and the future in the display of culture.

In an era cross-cut with various agendas and expressions of national belonging and global awareness, "e;the nation"e; as a collective reference point and experienced entity stands at the center of complex identity struggles. This book explores how such struggles unfold in practice at a highly symbolic battlefield site in the Danish/German borderland. Comprised of an ethnography of two profoundly different institutions - a conventional museum and an experience-based heritage center - it analyses the ways in which staff and visitors interfere with, relate to, and literally "e;make sense"e; of the war heritage and its national connotations. Borders of Belonging offers a comparative, in-depth analysis of the practices and negotiations through which history is made and manifested at two houses devoted to the interpretation of one event: the decisive battle of the 1864 war in which Otto von Bismarck, on his way to uniting the new German Empire, led the Prussian army to victory over the Danish. Working through his empirical material to engage with and challenge established theoretical positions in the study of museums, modernity, and tourism, Mads Daugbjerg demonstrates that national belonging is still a key cultural concern, even as it asserts itself in novel, muted, and increasingly experiential ways.

By accompanying a range of senior high school history students before, during and after their visits to the museum, Visitors to the House of Memory is an intimate exploration of how young Berliners from across the city experience the Jewish Museum Berlin.