Natural History Museum Analysis

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The diversity of the human experience is stupendous and has been described, recorded, cataloged and represented by a number of anthropologists working in natural history museums. For many anthropologists, natural history museums provide an outlet for presenting their research, in which this institutionalized and multidimensional space acts as a nexus for the reconstruction and understanding of life in a variety of time periods across the global landscape. More specifically through the displays and re-presenting of cultures, peoples, and practices, and material artifacts, museums act as synchronic portraitures of typically marginalized lifestyles and people groups. As for any such presentation of “text,” critical observers must step back from …show more content…
The National Museum of Natural history, is just one of the museums that house Native American materials and open in 1910. The NMNH has exhibits spanning a variety of topics including animals/plants/ecosystems, dinosaurs/fossils, earth sciences and human diversity the collections are world renown, making it the most visited natural history museum in the world in addition to being the third most visited museum in the world. Although the museum is 350,00 square feet, the Native Cultures of the Americas Gallery is one of five exhibitory spaces within the museum devoted to cultures from around the world. The Native Cultures of the Americas Gallery offers visitors a condensed walking tour of the distinct cultural areas of North America, encapsulated through select and supposedly representative objects. In this section I will focus on three displays within the gallery that eviscerate time and history and as a consequence depict Native American cultures as conventional and

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