Inequality has long been an issue that we constantly grapple with, as evidenced by campus events last weekend that discussed the challenges faced by women in the workplace and the national debate about the Defense of Marriage Act in the Supreme Court. Inequality is not a new development, but one that humans have faced since the first societies were established. Students of anthropology professor Alan Covey and his “The Origins of Inequality” class explored this phenomenon last term and used their findings to create “Objects of Power: Manifestations of Inequality,” an exhibit that opened yesterday at the Hood Museum of Art.

The exhibit contains 22 ethnographic and archaeological objects from cultures dating up to 3,000 years old and examines how inequality has been historically manifested.

“The overall question is, ‘How can we express inequality through these objects?’” said Amelia Kahl, coordinator of academic programming at the Hood. “How can they tell the story of inequality?”

The Hood is active in working with faculty to teach using their collections. After completing a Mellon Residency Fellowship at the museum in the fall, Covey said he was excited at the prospect of utilizing the museum’s resources for his class.

Although many were unaware of the exhibit until the first day of class, students were intrigued with the project.

“The class used archeological methods to explore inequality across time and space, which I thought was really fascinating,” Amanda Zieselman ’15 said.

The students were divided into four groups, which corresponded with four thematic aspects of society: private life, public life, craft and mortuary. After visiting the Hood’s collections, the groups finalized their objects of study and each student was responsible for writing a label for a piece to display. Covey stressed that the bulk of the work, from designing the layout of the displays to choosing the color of the walls, was done by his students.

“It was very much student-curated, which made for an interesting experience for the students,” Covey said. “They felt they had a lot of ownership in that process.”

Kahl praised the class for the high quality of the work they produced.

“I was very impressed with the students’ dedication and focus,” she said. “They took it very seriously and recognized that they were producing work for an audience beyond their professor.”

In addition to providing students with the practical experience of learning how to curate an exhibit, Zieselman said the project gave them a better understanding of how the abstract concept of inequality can be portrayed.

“The title, ‘Objects of Power,’ suggests that the objects have the power to portray inequality, which might otherwise seem to be a more intangible thing,” Zieselman said.

Covey said one of the main purposes of the exhibit is to express that objects can be used as metaphors for ideas that aren’t necessarily contained by the objects themselves.

“A large part of what we wanted to show is that objects themselves are things that we speak through,” Covey said. “They don’t speak directly to us.”

The exhibit suggests that inequality is not self-sustained — rather, it was instituted and is perpetuated by humans.

“One of the big points for us was to see to what extent we could represent the origins of inequality, but we found that we couldn’t really,” Covey said. “What we could examine was the perpetuation of inequality.”

Kahl said the exhibit will provide visitors with a “cross-cultural comparison” and hopes they will be intrigued by inequality’s roots in various cultural contexts. Zieselman echoed this sentiment, and said the themes of the exhibit remain relevant to our current society.

“I think the purpose is to show that inequality has been present in societies for a very long time,” Zieselman said. “At the same time, I hope they will realize that our culture today has similar themes of inequality.”

Lauren Kwan ’14 said she hopes viewers will understand inequality as a social problem that has existed in different forms throughout human history.

“Inequality is something that exists everywhere, whether we can see it or not,” Kwan said.

Gaining a better understanding of issues like inequality in our society is crucial as we work toward solving them, Covey said.

“What we’re trying to do today is to think critically about the world we live in, to understand it and maybe change it,” Covey said.

“Objects of Power: Manifestations of Inequality” opens today in the Archer Huntington Gallery and will be on display through Aug. 25.