Discuss how collecting practices, and the display of collections, could be seen as exercises in uneven power relations between those who collect and those whose culture is being collected. (2 pages)
In such a situation where some another part is more interested in collecting and preservation of cultural heritage than the real holder of these traditions and heritage, there can be necessarily marked out an imbalance of power and control division over the material that is being collected. This is the problem of western and European viewpoint. Often there dominates a misbelief that the only correct model of action that should be taken and by which the quality and importance in almost every field should be measured is the one accepted in western society . This, of course, is tricky and controversial issue, in which the golden mean is hard, if even not impossible, to find, because through the history the thinking patterns of western and eastern societies have always been strictly different. And I think it is incorrect to speak of more or less advanced cultures and societies, adopting the West as the only right example of development. Since I started to study culture and history, I have been always taught that each society in its context and environment has evolved exactly in the direction and level that has been necessary. Under whose competence it is to point out that the western model of civilization is the only right one and that it should be considered as model for all the other societies to aspire after? As result of neolithic revolution, when there was a disintegration of cultures, some parts of society made their choice to enter the civilization, while the rest of community decided to stay at the primitive model. And this selection was completely natural. Religious man who found the civilization as a better alternative dedicate their lives for eternity. But magic man of the Indigenous community rearrange themselves and focus on the good life here and now. By getting rid of the ideas of heaven and eternity, which could not be guaranteed and confirmed by anyone anyways, they obtain the comfort here and now. And, since Indigenous people of today are well informed about the civilization as an alternative, we are not able to talk about some kind of backwardness in this case . Members of Indigenous communities are free to choose if they want to continue their traditional model of society. In fact, Indigenous people increasingly notices weaknesses and imperfections of modern and civilized society, so we have no rights to criticize their desire to maintain their own centuries-old traditions. And precisely because of the fact that their culture and traditions are still alive and continues to function, the community members themselves do not always feel the need for a special cultural heritage collection . It is a western man who has traditionally always been focused on the material instead of spiritual. Almost everything testifies this, including even religion. Like science and other achievements and discoveries done by humankind, religion is also possible because of our imagination. …
