
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Museums, Authorship, Authority Museums, Authorship, Authority
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Lindow Man: An Exercise in Cognitive Relativism? Lindow Man: An Exercise in Cognitive Relativism?
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‘Covering the Mummies’ ‘Covering the Mummies’
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Concluding Thoughts: Individual Agendas and Institutional Authority Concluding Thoughts: Individual Agendas and Institutional Authority
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Endnotes Endnotes
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Bibliography Bibliography
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23311 Covering the Mummies at the Manchester Museum: A Discussion of Authority, Authorship, and Agendas in the Human Remains Debate
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Published:June 2016
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Abstract
From 2006 to 2009, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, UK, was one of the leading institutions promoting the debate surrounding the ethics of preserving and displaying the dead in museums. The discussion in this chapter analyses the activities of Manchester Museum in relation to human remains within the context of a critical assessment of recent developments in museum practice and the continuing cultural significance of the museum. In particular, the discussion will pay particular attention to the omission of any acknowledgement of the individuals responsible for exhibitions and related events, i.e. the authors of its public discourse. Two case studies will be used to illustrate the discussion: the exhibition, Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery (2008–9), and the incident of the ‘covering the mummies’ in April 2008 where three of the twelve Egyptian embalmed bodies on display were fully covered, resulting in a public outcry (Jenkins 2011a; Exell 2013a). Both the exhibition and the ‘covering the mummies’ formed part of a series of high-profile activities related to human remains that took place at Manchester Museum at this time. At the time, I was in post as Curator of Egyptology, and this discussion also illustrates the changing role of subject-specialist curators in relation to exhibition production and other aspects of a museum’s public communications (see Farrar 2004). … ‘There are, as far as we know, no a priori reasons for supposing that scientists’ scientific practice is any more rational than that of outsiders.’ (Latour and Woolgar 1986: 29) ‘Another word for “local knowledges” is prejudice.’ (Sokal 2008: 108)… Working on the public consultation process during the period 2008–10 for the new archaeology and ancient Egypt galleries at Manchester Museum, opened as the Ancient Worlds galleries in October 2012, the general lack of understanding of the exhibition and gallery development process amongst museum visitors became evident. From discussions with participants in the various consultation events (Exell and Lord 2008; Exell 2013a,b), it emerged that people in the institution either regarded the decision-making process as being the sole responsibility of the most relevant subject-specialist curator, or somehow the result of a monolithic and neutral institutional mind (Arnold 1998: 191).
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