October 19, 2015 - 11:27
I am having a little difficulty choosing a topic to delve into for this upcoming project on the contact zone, but I think I'd like to get a closer look at museums in the area. I think a museum functions as a contact zone in many instances. Over the summer, I went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts for a day. On exhibit were some Inuit artifacts, most of which had ceremonial purposes. I wondered if the act of displaying such sacred objects had an adverse effect on the culture it was taken from, and if their exhibition could impair the cultural importance of the objects. I think I could turn this project into an examination of objectification, ownership, and respect in the museum setting. There are, of course, many museums in Philadelphia, but I'd also be interested in researching artifacts that belong to collections within the consortium, too.