Should Culture Be A Commodity

Many people visit museums to view antiquities. They enjoy seeing these relics of the ancient world as a way of understanding past cultures and sometimes connecting with their own heritage. This evidence was found in the passage, “Returning Antiquities to Their Countries of Origin” by Joyce Mortimer paragraph 1. Cultural artifacts should not be returned to their region of origin because some people don’t have enough money to travel to China or Brazil to go look at ancient artifacts from the past. So they should bring these ancient trinkets to places like America and Canada so people around the world can study different cultures to learn more about the life around use.

These issues with museums and other institutions has led many tribes to not only protest these collections and demand the most sacred items back, but to also develop their own institution that not only tell the real story of their people from a non scientific point of view, but also show the proper resect for the sacred and religious artifacts. Religious sights and objects are a piece of many different groups culture, many of which require a certain level of respect. Within the United States Native American groups are reclaiming these objects for their own

Museums are filled with unique,historical artifacts that are precious to our history throughout the world. These “traveling exhibits” give people around the world an opportunity to see how our ancestors lived in many different regions of the world. Many artifacts are far away from their country of origin 7.In the articles “Bring Them Home”and “Museums Preserve the Cultures of the World,” people argue that museums should return certain artifacts to its original country, while others believes it’s only right to keep them considering the originating country rightfully sold those artifacts.In my opinion, countries should bring some artifacts back to their originating country.

Politics within nations and communities influences the finding of art artifacts and the eventual explanation of the art artifacts because they decide who has the right to claim it. If an archeologist finds an artifact that belongs to a nation or community and has significance, then the archaeologist can’t claim it. This can cause archaeologists and art historians to feel a certain pressure within their research projects because they can’t retaliate if a community claims the artifact they’ve been researching and studying. However, when the rightful community claims the artifact, they may be able to add insight into the meaning of the artifact because it belongs to them so they may know more about

In examining the article “Around the Mall and Beyond”, by Michael Kernan, the author seems to make an argument illustrating the existence of artifacts, practically everywhere. In this article, I concur with his position that there are likely artifacts and remains wherever one might go. This is because we are not the first inhabitants of this land, as such, remains of humans, animals, tools etc. could likely be found in any area if searched for in-depth enough. The author makes a specific reference to the National Historic Preservation Act, which I particularly agree with. The author goes on to use several instances in history where history were discovered on sites which were being considered for or in the process of being converted into

According to Maya Angelou, Amy tan, Chia-Fang (Sandy) Hsu, Janell Hobson, Yong Chen, Felicia F. Thomas, and Fuchs Lawrence, culture is what brings a community together as one. In “Champions of the World,” “Fish Cheeks,” “Acculturation and communication Traits: A Study of Cross-cultural Adaptation among Chinese in America,” “Between History and Fantasy: Harriet Tubman in the Artistic and Popular Imaginary,” “Recreating the Chinese American Home through Cookbook Writing,” “African American and Socialization,” and “Immigration, Multiculturalism, and American history”. All the authors mention and talk about how important is to know once culture. For generation culture has been what makes America so unique among

Collecting objects from a specific culture is also unethical, not because objects are being stolen, but because people are being put on display as if they are not human. In Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Indian skulls and bones are “labeled like a library book with a tracking number, wrapped in coarse white muslin, and packed in a cardboard box” (1). People are viewing these exhibits and looking at the bones as if they are normal objects you see every day. These bones were once humans, and they are being shown off like animals. Labeling them like library books shows the dehumanization of these exhibits, which is ironic because institutions and collectors find their culture so interesting. In a way, this can be considered racist. While discussing this piece, a classmate said “Why are we [as in, Native Americans] so interesting to you [as in, mostly white historians]; why don’t we have exhibits

Many works of art can be considered artifacts that hold volumes of information regarding the culture of the people that created them and the historical context in which they lived.

Culture, being a ubiquitous concept, is not innately tied to a specific location and consequently, cultural artefacts cannot belong uniquely to any one nation. Greece cannot therefore hold the sole right to artefacts such as the Parthenon Marbles. In the interest of the preservation of an artefact of great global significance, the Marbles should remain in the British Museum; a place which documents world history in an open

According to, “ARTSY EDITORIAL BY ISAAC KAPLAN,” Isaac was very correct the people are missing the point. We want to protect our art not destroy them. We do want new art but we want it legal and safe. Not a present from during a war. That’s not how we want our art delivered, From criminals. We want the antiquities protected and not let people during war be the cause of destroying and or selling stolen art to America. “This legislation was designed to try and tackle what is a worldwide problem but also a problem internal to this U.S. government about how it coordinates its own response.”

Antiques, they are hundreds, maybe thousands years old, but what if someone just took them from you. You would want them back, right? This valuable prized possession, someone just, stole. Well, imagine it a bit more extreme. That has been the major problem in Egypt for many years. Britain, France, and other surrounding countries have been stealing major antiquities from Egypt illegally for a long time. These countries should give back Egypt’s antiquities because, they deserve to be in their country of origin, these artifacts represent Egyptian culture, and Egyptian antiquities are not only limited to staying in the pyramids.

However, artifacts should not be repatriated to the countries of their origin because museums are to educate people about different places, things, objects, cultures, and eras. If the artifact is donated then the museum’s highest priority is to honor the donor’s wishes. And if the museum found the artifact(s) in a foreign country, then it should stay with museum

Ancient Egyptian artifacts should not be returned to Egypt from their current museums, because who ever found the artifacts is technically the owner not whoever wants the artifacts.

There are many similarities in the ethical statements/codes of the SAA, SHA, AIA, and RPA. The ones that pertain to this case are as follows: it is the responsibility of archaeologists to work for the long-term conservation and protection of the archaeological record (SAA 1, AIA 1, RPA 1.1-e). The buying and selling of objects out of archaeological context is contributing to the destruction of the archaeological record around the world, and these items should not be traded, sold, bought, or bartered as commercial goods (SAA 3, SHA 6, AIA 2, RPA 1.2-e). Within reasonable time, the knowledge archaeologists gain

Of the many crimes that are present in this day and age, one that not only vandalizes the property, but as well as historical background is that of art theft. A crime that has taken away the sanctity of churches as well as many other religious and historical sites. Thefts have ranged from WWII (World War II) to the times of the Holocaust. Of the items that were taken from the churches, relics were items of great priority. These items not only had great value to the churches they were stolen from, but a great value to relic collectors. Most of the items taking during these times were either sold or placed in underground storage. Most of these items that were place in these secret places were never to be seen again. From the