My focus here will be primarily on archaeological museums that house cultural artifacts from many cultures. I will focus on the knowledge claims made by such museums, and argue that there is a form of extractivist epistemology at work in the construction of these types of museums as well as the current defenses of their right to their collections. The primary way museums legitimate their right of ownership and of display is on the basis of protecting a universal cultural knowledge which has unlimited reach into the future. I will explore and analyse the debates over this claim.
