Abstract
Tremendous care is generally taken in the design and construction of natural history dioramas, yet any diorama may be read in a number of ways. In this chapter I review the other chapters in this book and look at the extent to which they take seriously the importance of sociocultural issues for natural history dioramas and the importance of natural history dioramas for sociocultural issues. The reality is that dioramas present a distinctive staging of reality. This is not to imply that they are fictional but to acknowledge that their construction (some would say fabrication) results in a dance between the intentions of those who design and construct them, the dioramas themselves and their audiences. This gives dioramas great potential both as tools for education and as tools for cultural reflection and critique.
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Reiss, M.J. (2019). The Relevance of Natural History Dioramas for Sociocultural Issues. In: Scheersoi, A., Tunnicliffe, S. (eds) Natural History Dioramas – Traditional Exhibits for Current Educational Themes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00208-4_14
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