Museum Ethnographers Group


The Museum Ethnographers Group is a United Kingdom-based collective for those working with and researching ethnographic collections in museums. It is registered as a charity in England and Wales and is recognised in the UK museum sector as a subject specialist network. It is often known to its members by its acronym MEG. Its most obvious functions are the annual conference it organises and the journal it publishes.

History

MEG was founded in 1975 at a meeting in Liverpool on Communicating Anthropology — the role of museums, when its first Chair was Peter Gathercole.

MEG conference

MEG holds an annual conference, normally hosted by a UK museum. Recent conferences have been at the Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading, Bristol Museum/University, St John's College, University of Oxford, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, University of Leicester.

Journal of Museum Ethnography

The MEG newsletter for many years functioned as a kind of journal, containing scholarly articles despite its photocopied pages. In 1989, MEG began to publish the Journal of Museum Ethnography, and has done so every year since. In 2010, MEG reached an agreement with JSTOR to digitise all past issues of JME, as well as the early newsletters.
;Issues and themes
VolumeYearTheme
11989A Question of Image
21990The Walrus Said
31991African Anthropology in Scotland
41992Baskets of the World
51993What is Ethnography?
61994Museum Ethnography and Communities
71995Tourism, Anthropology and Museums & New Developments in Scotland
81996Picturing Paradise
91997MEG 21st Birthday: Past and future in museum ethnography
101998Inter-Active: World Cultures and Museum Education
111999‘Arts Premiers’? Ethnography and Art in the late 20th Century
122000Glimpses of Africa – Museums, scholarship and popular culture
132001Developing Dialogues: Museums and their Communities
142002Transformations
152003Power and Collecting
162004Developing Audiences – Developing Collections
172005Pacific Ethnography, Politics and Museums
182006Looking Backward, Looking Forward
192007Feeling the Vibes: Dealing with Intangible Heritage
202008Objects of Trade
212009Encounters with Polynesia: Exhibiting the Past in the Present
222010Museum Ethnography at Home