Description: "Originally published in Great Britain in 2023 by Profile Books in London"--t.p. verso.
Review Quotes: "A nuanced, informative look at the history, development, and future of museums of anthropology and ethnology. . . . This highly recommended work . . . challenges preconceptions and encourages readers to think critically about this complex and important issue."
--Library Journal, starred review
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Kuper's case is strong and his voice--erudite and elegiac--commands respect as the summation of a long and honourable life in the service of anthropology."
--Times Literary Supplement (UK) "A provocative look at questions of ethnography, ownership and restitution . . . the argument [Kuper] makes in The Museum of Other People is important precisely because just about no one else is making it. He asks the questions that others are too shy to pose. . . . Required reading."
--Financial Times (UK) "[A] tale of the evolution of these now endangered disciplines and the institutions created for their exposition. . . . Kuper is adamant that, ultimately, 'the local cannot be curtained off from the global.'"
--The Telegraph (UK) "Kuper suggests we need to think carefully about the complex and often contradictory histories of the objects in our museums. . . . Highly readable--not least because he articulates quite a lot of things that other museum commentators possibly think, but don't dare say. . . . fascinating."
--The Times (UK) "Kuper exposes the limits of contemporary curators who seek to atone for the colonial past. . . . He suggests that they are as fuelled by romantic and relativistic ideas of difference as their forebears. . . . [and] puts forward the case for a 'Cosmopolitan Museum' that transcends ethnic and national identities, in which comparisons and connections are made--one that is guided less by politicking than rigorous inquiry."
--Literary Review (UK) "Debates rage about the appropriateness of objects displayed in many anthropological exhibitions amid accusations they perpetuate poisonous imperialist narratives. . . . Kuper uses a historical approach to explore these contemporary controversies. . . . [and] makes the case that we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater by also rejecting the very idea of anthropological expertise."
--The Times Higher Education (UK)