On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, MARY S. MCCUTCHEON wrote:

> On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, Fielding S Freed wrote:
>
> >         My questions are:What do YOU call dioramas that incorporate
> > human beings?
>
>
> The recreation of contextualized activity and object use areas in
> ethnology museums with models of people doing things was called the "life
> group" by Franz Boas.  Read about this in Stockings book Objects and
> Others.

        Mary, right you are. I was aware of Boas's term "life group", but what
I find interesting is the fact that this term has fallen out of popular
usage. I am trying to get at what museum professionals use today, in lieu
of "life groups". In other words, what do you say when you are refering
to dioramas other than habitat groups?
        Thanks for responding. Any other ideas/input out there?
                                        fielding