ABSTRACT
Many museum anthropologists and heritage professionals consider what they do applied anthropology in terms of making their work relevant to audiences beyond the academy. This chapter looks at the changing status of museum and applied anthropology within academic anthropology by charting their shared origins and trajectories. I highlight how response to criticism has contributed to the transformation of the fields and their re-emergence as models of engaged research, scholarship, and practice mainly in the US. I suggest that museum and applied anthropology along with museum studies have been converging around the common cause of engagement. I look into the “nooks and crannies” of these histories to shine light on narratives that have been overlooked, ignored, and forgotten.
