Museum Cultural Collections: Pathways to the Preservation of Traditional and Scientific Knowledge

• Main Authors: Linn, Angela J., Reuther, Joshua D., Wooley, Chris B., Shirar, Scott J., Rogers, Jason S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2017
• Subjects: Fairbanks; Barter Island; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/78443; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/AS-2017-0001

Museums of natural and cultural history in the twenty-first century hold responsibilities that are vastly different from those of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-centuries, the time of many of their inceptions. No longer conceived of as cabinets of curiosities, institutional priorities are in the process of undergoing dramatic changes. This article reviews the history of the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, from its development in the early 1920s, describing the changing ways staff have worked with Indigenous individuals and communities. Projects like the Modern Alaska Native Material Culture (MANMC) and the Barter Island Project are highlighted as examples of how artifacts and the people who constructed them are no longer viewed as simply examples of material culture and Native informants, but are considered partners in the acquisition, preservation, and perpetuation of traditional and scientific knowledge in Alaska. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.