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Museums as Ritual Sites: Civilizing Rituals Reconsidered book cover

1st Edition

Museums as Ritual Sites Civilizing Rituals Reconsidered

Edited By Lieke Wijnia, James S. Bielo Copyright 2025
248 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

248 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Museums as Ritual Sites critically examines the assumption that museums inherently function as ritual sites and, in turn, are poised to exert influence on cultural and societal change. Bringing together a diverse, international group of interdisciplinary scholars and curators, the volume celebrates and critically engages with Carol Duncan’s seminal work, Civilizing Rituals. Presenting a... Read more

The Enduring Value of Museum Ritual: Volume Introduction
Lieke Wijnia and James S. Bielo

Part 1. Ritualizing Diversity and Inclusion

1. Living with Others: Fashioning a Post-Secular Citizen in the British Museum
Yaniv Feller

2. Remediating Colonialism: Stories of Gold in Harvard’s Natural History Museum
Pamela E. Klassen and Claire Neid

3. (Un)Civilizing Rituals: Challenging Cultural Memory at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Karine Duhamel

Part 2. Rituals of Consumption

4. Visiting Helene: Jachthuis Sint Hubertus at the Crux of the Kröller-Müller Donor Memorial 
Mary Bouquet

5. Corporate Racial Citizenship: How Black Cultural Patronage Reinforces Capitalism
Patricia A. Banks

6. Like-able Me, Like-able There: Instagram Selfie-Taking as Ritual Practice
James S. Bielo

Part 3. (Re)Presenting and Interrogating the Sacred

7. The Many Faces of Mary Magdalene: Curatorially Compared, Ritually Construed
Lieke Wijnia

8. Scenes of Ritual Intimacy: Museums and the Display of Magical Practice
Marisa Karyl Franz

9. Reassembling the Sacred in Museums: Two Case Studies from Korea
Hwasun Choe

Part 4. Ritual Tradition: Constraint and Opportunity

10. Rituals after Ruin: The Memorialisation of the University of Cape Town Jagger Library
Duane Jethro

11. Rituals of Erasure and Transcendence: Exhibiting Indigenous Objects in Art Museums
Sarah Dees

12. Curating Rituals: The Role of Curators in Shaping Narratives of Culture
Marie Vejrup Nielsen & Sanne Andersen Hansen

Biography

Lieke Wijnia (she/ her) is Head of Research and Collections at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Fellow of the Centre for Religion and Heritage at Groningen University. 

James S. Bielo is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University.

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