Close Looking and the Importance of Community Connections with Collections

Indigenous peoples’ ethnographic objects have entered museums through a variety of collecting methods. As a result, many of these items have lost the ties that connect them to the names of their original makers and owners. This loss in documentation is reflected in museum collections across the world, and while outside researchers can employ the technique of close looking to learn more about specific objects, individuals from the material culture’s own community can sometimes answer questions and make connections that add significantly to the accession records and overall museum dialogue.

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