Publications

The word “policy” is often used in conversation about government: foreign policy, national policy, and public health policy, to name a few examples. Politicians and health practitioners are not the only professionals creating and working with policy. Cultural anthropologists working across diverse communities and in numerous contexts also interact with policy and the processes to create effective policy. How does policy work function and evolve across multiple environments? What kinds of insight do cultural anthropologists offer in this realm of decision making, extoling values, and guiding action? In this short essay, I offer insight into the museum world and how museum collection policy informs our approaches to the physical, ethical, and intellectual care of objects.