Amulets and charms inside and outside the Pitt Rivers Museum: the anthropology we make and the criticism of contemporary hegemonies

Abstract

This article presents reflections from an ethnographic research on amulets and charms at the Pitt Rivers Museum and criticizes the production of knowledge. I describe the challenges and practices of contemporary anthropologists in the management, study and display of amulets and charms from other societies. I highlight the constant notion of transformation in the history of the museum. Following, I record reflections on unexpected research experiences: i. recent research result by the museum staff ii. Movements of an ethnography in groups of songs; which suggest investigation around contemporary amulets and charms. I conclude by briefly calling for the potential of ethnography performed in the practice of singing collectively. I stress the importance of a critical attitude towards analytical categories and assumptions reproduced by anthropology that are allowed by the position occupied by the discipline and its alliances - often silenced - with the hegemonic practices of knowledge production.