Discipline(d) and Punish(ed): The Museum as a 'Prison' of Culture

Abstract

This thesis examines museum possession of objects against a framework of Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, specifically his application of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon model. It applies the theory developed through Foucault’s exploration of state institutions in his 1975 work to the dynamic that currently exists between the Museum, exhibits and visitors. Through Foucault’s establishment of the symbiotic relationship that exists between Knowledge and Power, this thesis focuses on how knowledge (what is disclosed about the object; what is withheld), access (who gets to see it; where and when), and the visual (what is seen; what is not; and how it is seen/ exhibited) is controlled in a museum context. These issues are interrogated through the use of a series of specific case studies from the British Museum: the Benin Bronzes, the caryatid from the Erechtheion, and the Hoa Hakananai’a statue from Rapa Nui. These are all highly contested objects, embroiled in ongoing ownership and restitution debates. Similarly, they are all very culturally significant items, both to their places of origin (Nigeria, Greece and Easter Island, respectively) and to the British Museum’s status as a ‘World Museum’. Thus, this study examines the Museum as an institution that acts as a ‘prison’ of culture through an application of Foucauldian theory; looks at this in context in the form of the British Museum’s possession of the Benin Bronzes, the caryatid, and Hoa Hakananai’a; and works towards solutions that will enable the ‘freeing’ of foreign cultures.