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Cabinets and culture: Victorian anthropology and the museum context
Author(s) -
Van Keuren David K.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198901)25:1<26::aid-jhbs2300250103>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - discipline , context (archaeology) , anthropology , sociology , quarter (canadian coin) , history , social science , archaeology
Collections of material artifacts played a central institutional and intellectual role in Victorian anthropology. Ethnological theory argued that evolution in material technology recapitulated broader patterns of social evolution. Arrangement of artifacts into developmental typologies thereby provided heuristic exemplars by which theorists could chart the path of broader institutional change. Museums, in consequence, became centers for professional research and advancement. The central theoretical and disciplinary role of collections was tied to evolutionary theory. As the latter lost its preeminence in the first quarter of the twentieth century, so did museum settings decline in significance.