Anthropology 216CA - Collecting Past: Art/Artifacts

Early European explorers, modern travelers, collectors, curators, and archaeologists have contributed to the development of ancient Latin American collections in museums across the globe. This course traces the history of these collecting practices and uses recent case studies to demonstrate how museums negotiate--successfully and unsuccessfully--the competing interests of scholars, donors, local communities, and international law. Students will learn how archaeologists study a variety of artifact types within museum collections and will have the opportunity to conduct independent research projects using pre-Columbian pottery collections from the Mount Holyoke Art Museum.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors; Prereq: One course in archaeology, anthropology, history of Latin America, museum studies, or art history.