Re: SFSU Campus Employee Assaults White Sudent for Cultural Appropriation
That is one of the main arguments against returning the Parthenon Marbles, but I think we do have to rethink how we negotiate and display artifacts. I don't think that creating fair negotiations and returning contested objects to countries that truly want them back will empty museums of all international artifacts. A lot of cultures simply want certain items back (the Greeks aren't all that concerned with most of the numerous sculptures on display all over the world, for example. They just want those marbles back). I think in a lot of cases, museums could work together with different countries and regions to create a cultural exchange rather than just displaying the plunders of colonialism.
To be honest, it gets a bit boring in Europe. I'd love to learn more about prehistoric European peoples and such, but so little attention is dedicated to that. In Berlin, all of the major museums display foreign artifacts, but only one (and it's on the margins of the city) dedicates any space to ancient people from -this- country. The best museum totally dedicated to that sort of thing is in Halle. Why aren't we telling our own stories more often? We're so much more than just war and the Berlin Wall.
That is one of the main arguments against returning the Parthenon Marbles, but I think we do have to rethink how we negotiate and display artifacts. I don't think that creating fair negotiations and returning contested objects to countries that truly want them back will empty museums of all international artifacts. A lot of cultures simply want certain items back (the Greeks aren't all that concerned with most of the numerous sculptures on display all over the world, for example. They just want those marbles back). I think in a lot of cases, museums could work together with different countries and regions to create a cultural exchange rather than just displaying the plunders of colonialism.
To be honest, it gets a bit boring in Europe. I'd love to learn more about prehistoric European peoples and such, but so little attention is dedicated to that. In Berlin, all of the major museums display foreign artifacts, but only one (and it's on the margins of the city) dedicates any space to ancient people from -this- country. The best museum totally dedicated to that sort of thing is in Halle. Why aren't we telling our own stories more often? We're so much more than just war and the Berlin Wall.
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