A critical interrogation of the history of anthropology demands a careful consideration of the relationship between anthropology and museums. From its inception, anthropology contributed to lay understandings of the "exotic" objects contained within the "cabinets of curiosities" that filled museums.
A recent (2006) installation at Milwaukee's Public Museum does a good job of reminding its audience that museums have long sought to create a sense of "wonder." What museums have not often done is to provoke critical awareness of the process through which such wonder is created. What were these objects housed in curiosity cabinets? How were they acquired? How do they relate to a history of anthropology? How do anthropologists make sense of them?
