Summer Institute of Museum Anthropology

博物馆收藏的人类学藏品被用来记录世界文化，为研究结论提供证据基础，并支持未来的人类学研究。史密森学会博物馆人类学暑期研究所是一个为期四周的密集课程，旨在培训研究生和教师在文化人类学研究中使用博物馆物品。在SIMA期间，参与者学习使用一系列定性和定量方法和方法在人类学当前研究兴趣的背景下分析博物馆藏品。SIMA利用史密森学会在各组成博物馆中的大量人类学收藏和相关资源，让参与者在个人项目中使用博物馆标本，从而获得论文和研究项目以及新的教学课程的实践经验。SIMA将博物馆视为一个民族志现场，并专注于体验式学习，将实地学校的元素与正式的课堂课程相结合。该计划培养了许多研究生和教师在科学文化人类学和产生资源，支持人类学研究的广泛学者。目前的趋势，文化人类学刺激了人类学对象（文物，录音，图纸，静态和动态图像）和博物馆收藏品的兴趣振兴日益被公认为丰富的文化数据的来源。然而，许多潜在的研究人员不能有效地利用博物馆收藏，因为他们缺乏接近或评估这类数据的技能和方法。虽然人类学的理论趋势发生了变化，但这些集合是可以解决新的研究问题和答案的关键数据集。基于博物馆的研究培训是罕见的，很少能提供动手学习，这是必不可少的对象研究。SIMA旨在提高博物馆藏品的生产性利用，并使文化人类学能够利用前几代人的投资。此外，它还致力于促进和参与对这些材料来源的社区有兴趣和价值的研究，从而证明文化人类学方法对广泛的科学，社会科学和人文学科的价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Anthropology collections housed by museums have been assembled to document world cultures, present the evidential basis of research conclusions, and support future anthropological inquiry. The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution is an intensive four-week program to train graduate students and faculty to use museum objects in research in cultural anthropology. During SIMA, participants learn to analyze museum collections in the context of current research interests in anthropology using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches. SIMA takes advantage of the Smithsonian Institution’s vast anthropological collections and related resources in constituent museums, allowing participants hands-on experience working with museum specimens on individual projects that lead to dissertation and research projects as well as new teaching curricula. SIMA treats the museum as an ethnographic field site and focuses on experiential learning, combining elements of a field school with formal classroom lessons. This program trains numerous graduate students and faculty in scientific cultural anthropology and generates resources that support anthropological research for a broad range of scholars.Current trends in cultural anthropology have stimulated a revitalized interest in anthropological objects (artifacts, audio recordings, drawings, still and moving images) and museum collections are increasingly being recognized as a source of rich cultural data. However, many potential researchers cannot effectively use museum collections because they lack the skills and methods to approach or evaluate this type of data. While theoretical trends shift in anthropology, these collections are critical data sets that can address new research questions and answers. Training in museum-based research is rare and seldom can offer the hands-on learning that is essential for object study. SIMA is designed to increase productive use of museum collections and allow cultural anthropology to capitalize on the investment made by former generations. In addition, it seeks to promote and engage in research of interest and value to the communities where this material originated, and thus demonstrate the value of cultural anthropology methodologies to a wide range of scientific, social science and humanistic disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.