| This thesis argues that the agency of objects in museums results in, and affects their participation in political, economic and institutional networks. In addition, this thesis argues that objects are able to exert ephemeral agency that helps make them a part of such networks. Using a life history approach, this study will explore three eras in the life of the calumet, III-G-826: its entrance into the museum through the acquisition of the Speyer Collection, its exhibition in The Spirit Sings, and its current role in the museum while in storage. This approach allows for study of differences in agency that III-G-826 exerts in each era that are the result of changes in political and social actors within the same networks. These actors have created funding and exhibition policies that have allowed III-G-826 to exert agency as an aesthetic object and a part of nation-building narratives, among other forms of agency. |
