This Week

I found the museum this week interesting. It surprised me that it didn't focus at all on the interactions between the tribes it portrayed, or the interactions between them and european invaders. Like some people said, it seemed more like a cultural museum than either a history or an art museum. Each little exhibit seemed somewhat isolated from the others. While they all related in that they were about "American Indians" and each floor had somewhat of a theme, each little section didn't necessarily relate much to the ones around it. I spent a lot of time on the third floor, if only because I was waiting for other people to catch up, and I found it interesting that there was so much space dedicated to these cultures in the current world. I suppose there's nothing in the name "National Museum of the American Indian" that suggests otherwise, but I still expected it to be mostly a history museum. (On a side note, I was also really surprised to see that small section about them in Chicago. In all my years in Chicago, I don't think I've even seen a native american/ american indian. Maybe I'm just not in the right parts of the city.)

I also liked Friday's discussion on whether Columbus saw the natives as human or not. I think that in some cases, it would help to see them less as people and more as animals. Animals can be tamed, domesticated, used for your own purposes. It would be immoral to treat humans the same way, at least today. By thinking of them as animals, the explorers and conquerers could praise them when they did something to their liking, and punish them when they did not, without fear of their conscience getting in the way.