Museum Ethnographers Group

The Museum Ethnographers Group (MEG) is a United Kingdom-based collective for those working with and researching ethnographic collections in museums. It is registered as a charity in England and Wales (no. 1023150) and is recognised in the UK museum sector as a subject specialist network. It is often known to its members by its acronym MEG. Its most obvious functions are the annual conference it organises and the journal it publishes.

History

MEG was founded in 1975 at a meeting in Liverpool on Communicating Anthropology — the role of museums, when its first Chair was Peter Gathercole.^[1]^[2]

MEG conference

MEG holds an annual conference, normally hosted by a UK museum. MEG's 2018 conference at the Pitt Rivers Museum concerned the legacy of colonialism in British museums.^[3]

Journal of Museum Ethnography

The MEG newsletter for many years functioned as a kind of journal, containing scholarly articles despite its photocopied pages.^{[citation needed]} In 1989, MEG began to publish the Journal of Museum Ethnography (JME), and has done so every year since. In 2010, MEG reached an agreement with JSTOR to digitise all past issues of JME, as well as the early newsletters.

Issues and themes

Volume	Year	Theme
1	1989	A Question of Image
2	1990	The Walrus Said
3	1991	African Anthropology in Scotland
4	1992	Baskets of the World
5	1993	What is Ethnography?
6	1994	Museum Ethnography and Communities
7	1995	Tourism, Anthropology and Museums & New Developments in Scotland
8	1996	Picturing Paradise
9	1997	MEG 21st Birthday: Past and future in museum ethnography
10	1998	Inter-Active: World Cultures and Museum Education
11	1999	'Arts Premiers'? Ethnography and Art in the late 20th Century
12	2000	Glimpses of Africa – Museums, scholarship and popular culture
13	2001	Developing Dialogues: Museums and their Communities
14	2002	Transformations
15	2003	Power and Collecting
16	2004	Developing Audiences – Developing Collections
17	2005	Pacific Ethnography, Politics and Museums
18	2006	Looking Backward, Looking Forward
19	2007	Feeling the Vibes: Dealing with Intangible Heritage
20	2008	Objects of Trade
21	2009	Encounters with Polynesia: Exhibiting the Past in the Present
22	2010	Museum Ethnography at Home

References

^ Museum Ethnographers Newsletter No. 1 (19 July 1976)
^ Interview of Peter Gathercole by Alan Macfarlane and Ami Henare. Filmed by Alan Macfarlane at King's College, 8 May 2003.
^ Shariatmadari, David (23 April 2019). "'They're not property': the people who want their ancestors back from British museums". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 August 2020.

External links

MEG website
MEG blog on Blogspot

[1] Museum Ethnographers Newsletter No. 1 (19 July 1976)

[2] Interview of Peter Gathercole by Alan Macfarlane and Ami Henare. Filmed by Alan Macfarlane at King's College, 8 May 2003.

[3] Shariatmadari, David (23 April 2019). "'They're not property': the people who want their ancestors back from British museums". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 August 2020.

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