Abstracts Category : Other

Olmec in the Museum

by Janna Kliewer

It is important the connect visitors in the museum to past societies. Also, showing a story of the origin of civilizations in an area is a core piece of knowledge of an area. Thus, during this thesis, the Olmec were found in ten different museums and the way that they were represented was analyzed. The goal was to see if the museum would represent the Olmec as a separate entity or as an integral part of Mesoamerican culture. Three natural history museums, in three parts of the United States of America, and seven exhibits in Europe, were analyzed. These museum exhibits were created between the 1970s and 2008. They all mention the Olmec in their own way. However, they all fail to fully connect the Olmec to other ancient Mesoamerican cultures and to present indigenous populations. Part of this thesis also shows the accessibility of new resources on the Olmec. Thus, it is easy for curators to construct labels with accurate information for new exhibits once it is viable for museums to design new rooms. Few visitors that were interviewed in during this process knew where the Olmec objects were in the exhibit. What is even more serious is that some of these visitors were confused by the term Olmec. Another aspect of this research is the object that are in these museums. Their databases show that there has been very little done on the Olmec objects in their collections. Very few artifacts have specific provenances attached to them. The provenances that are attached to some of the objects are tenuous because of the age in which they were acquired by the museums. In researching these objects, the museum will be able to give a better overall picture of the true nature of these artifacts and maybe connect them to their true origins. In these museums, there are very few objects that were given to the museum after archaeological research begun on the Olmec. This thesis shows that some museums in the United States and Europe need to give a better overall picture of the Olmec. In doing so, these museums will give a better foundation to their stories on Mesoamerica and be able to tell a more complete story of the region.Advisors/Committee Members: Jansen, M.E.R.G.N (advisor).