The mission of this museum is very simple...to begin to examine pyramid-type objects between Egypt and the Mayans to see their similarities and differences.

Within many cultures, pyramids were used. For some, they were tombs. For some, they were a temple. For others, it was both. Within this museum, we shall discover the uses for pyramids in different cultures.

Ethics:

  1. When looking at museums, the experience of the museum comes into play. When an object is placed in the museum, for better or worse, it takes a different meaning than what it originally had, Helen Hein argues in her book The Museum in Transition. How this object changes meaning is greatly up to the curator(s) of the specific museum. For example, a saucer that was placed in a museum, off limits from anyone to touch, was used by an older gentleman in his youth as a boat when the basement flooded. With that in mind, this museum will seek to keep objects, as best as possible, within its original context.

  2. Museums have a fine line to balance. On the one hand, museums need to be held accountable to the public, to those who fund the museum and without them there is no point for the museum. On the other hand, the museums must maintain some form of separation from the public, in order to present objects without bias or prejudice. Hein states that museums have a responsibility to provide a service to the public, the public being diverse and democratic, and the service being education in some way. This is reinforced by the 1992 report by the American Association of Museums, Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums which gives museums a moral function of public service and education. This museum does hope to present an educational picture, while still listening to those who visit, and will make changes as need be. I don't claim to have the answers, and if I am shown evidence that I am wrong, I will strive to correct the problem.

  3. Museums have been a place of creating stereotypes for centuries. From placing native objects in natural history museums to displaying a culture's work as art, stereotypes have been created. Michael Ames, in his book Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums,makes the point that no matter what the museum's purpose, a stereotyping does come into play. By the structure that the object is placed in and how it is displayed, certain assumptions are made about a culture. For this reason, this museum will attempt to display the objects in as complete a picture as possible, to limit the negative or limiting stereotypes that can be present.

  4. Museums contain objects. This is a standard point of all museums. However, how these objects are used can vary between the museum. A museum can be based around the objects themselves, or can be based around the experience that the objects create. Heid argues that museums have changed greatly over time, shifting from being object-centered to being experience-centered. With this in mind, this museum will work to make the objects the focus of the museum. The objects are the museum. We hope that visitors to this museum will learn about the objects, and then begin to learn about the context of the objects.

  5. Finally, copyright laws are important to us, as they are to any museum. We have done our best to keep within copyright laws, but if you feel that we have violated any, please let us know, and we will rectify the situation.


This site is maintained by Ryan Cohagan at Creighton University.
Please feel free to visit our course syllabus.

My e-mail address is cohagan@creighton.edu

I would appreciate some feedback.

Created: October 8, 2001 Updated: December 11, 2001