All of these areas are sometimes pursued in museum contexts (usually on the basis of research work with systematic collections) and all can be (and are) explicated in museum-based exhibitions and public programs.
[10][11] Related is historical work in which museum anthropologists seek to better understand the contexts, histories and biographies that shaped both the field and the collections that contemporary curators steward.
[12][13][14] Such historical concerns in turn intersect with work addressing repatriation claims and broader cultural property issues as these relate to museums.
A general revitalization of material culture studies is a further factor conditioning the renewal of collections-based research in the present period.
The fruits of this work include new digital archives and databases, as well as published studies focusing on particular groups, object forms, and collections.