Representing archaeological knowledge in museums: Exhibiting human origins and strategies for change

Archaeological representation is a relatively new field of inquiry in the discipline, focusing on the construction of knowledge by the diverse range of ‘non-academic‘ media that present the past. In this analysis the subject of museum display and the construction of disciplinary knowledge is addressed, with a case study on the way the subject of human origins has been exhibited. After an initial discussion outlining the manner in which displays construct the past, I proceed to establish that displays of human origins have created a highly formulaic and restrictive version of our evolution as a species. This critique is then followed by a set of five proposed strategies for dismantling the display canon so firmly entrenched in museum practice. These are: 1) engaging the present; 2) challenging the iconography; 3) abandoning the narrative; 4) telling different stories; and 5) harnessing emotion.