Anthropologists and Museums: An Interview with Joseph Weiss

This section was planned as a Q&A about museums from the perspective of anthropologists around the world who work in museums. Alaka Wali supplied some names, and Virginia R. Dominguez used her contacts to find others. Five people (in five countries outside the US) agreed to answer questions we came up with, but interestingly (and disappointingly) only one came through, despite repeated reminders. We are very pleased to be able to offer a commentary as well. But we want to mention here some of the reasons we think that others did not come through. Our speculation is based on what one colleague who explicitly pull out told us-namely, that the work is a very political and major museums operate in a very public context that is always subject to national politics and at times is closely scrutinized by the public and many levels of government.