Arms, Armor & Anthropology

Weapons As A Cultural Lens

Visitors will learn how weapons and armor compare cross-culturally. The exhibit highlights how weapons differ depending on cultural values, fighting tactics, environment and available resources. Different groups of people from around the world throughout history were trying to meet the same goal: fighting against other groups of people for a myriad of resources. They met that goal in a variety of ways by creating different weapons. Arms, Armor & Anthropology shares the similarities and differences among those weapons.

This exhibit features more than 150 objects ranging across weapon types from clubs to swords to firearms, representing dozens of cultures from around the world. The exhibit also includes five sets of armor.

Arms, Armor & Anthropology is included with museum admission and can be found on the third floor.

This exhibit was sponsored by the Mark B. And Diann S. Sorensen Fund, the Latta and Perry W. Banch Memorial Fund. The museum also thanks Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Nebraska, the Friends of the State Museum, and Museum Donors for their support of the exhibit.