Experiencing materiality: museum perspectives

Introduction. Materiality or the problem -- What thing is this? Indian storytelling scrolls -- Curatorial understanding of the Sacred within museum walls: Metalogues in dialogue with scholarship -- Manipulating sacred force: Scrolls and copies -- Material engagements in the colony: Legacies and changes in perspective -- Reconstructing the sacred: Temples or museum galleries? -- When religious power is limiting: The World Museum of Liverpool -- For a reappraisal of phenomenology: A perspectival approach to materiality -- Conclusions. Returning to museums.

"Representing a cutting-edge study of the junction between theoretical anthropology, material culture studies, religious studies and museum anthropology, this study examines the interaction between the human and the nonhuman in a museum setting usually defined as 'non-Western', 'non-scientific' and 'religious.' Combining an on-site analysis of exhibitive spaces with archival research and interviews with museum curators, the chapters highlight contradictions of museum practices, and suggests that museum practitioners use museum spaces and artefacts as a way of formulating new theoretical stances in material culture studies, thus viewing museums as producers of theories together with affective engagements"

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. Materiality or the problem -- What thing is this? Indian storytelling scrolls -- Curatorial understanding of the Sacred within museum walls: Metalogues in dialogue with scholarship -- Manipulating sacred force: Scrolls and copies -- Material engagements in the colony: Legacies and changes in perspective -- Reconstructing the sacred: Temples or museum galleries? -- When religious power is limiting: The World Museum of Liverpool -- For a reappraisal of phenomenology: A perspectival approach to materiality -- Conclusions. Returning to museums.