John Semanduyev
5/5
Believe it or not, this was actually my first time ever visiting the Museum of Natural History. My family isn’t very cultured. I arrived with the intent to immediately seek out patterns that relate what I saw at the museum to culture and immigration. Although I still expected to spend a lot of time gasping at the site of big dinosaur bones and feeling belittled by the dark universe show, it was to my surprise that I enjoyed the more “Human” exhibits far more.
The Hall of Mexico and Central America exhibited the diverse art, jewelry, and architecture of Mesoamerican groups such as the Maya, Aztec, Olmec, and Toltec. The hall depicts the colorful and almost playful style of Mesoamerican art. The Hall of African Peoples explored African cultural heritage. Through the pieces, the political, religious, and economic, and social aspects of African culture became clear. The Hall of Asian Peoples was very different from the other two halls. The artifacts displayed were simpler in comparison and there was a smaller focus on the frivolous.
The Native American exhibit in particular really stood out to me. The exhibit depicted Native American artifacts such as clothes, tools, and weapons. There were also many miniature artistic replications of Native American settlements, my favorite being the ones in the snowy climate simply because of aesthetics. Viewing the exhibit really helped me empathize with the Native American experience. Native American culture was torn apart by violent immigration. Many of the original American settlers viewed them as savages and treated their lives as being completely insignificant. There are countless stories about the gruesome acts experienced by natives at the hands of the immigrant settlers; some were so inhumane even reading about them can send chills throughout your body.
Is the immigrant experience faced by the Native Americans a foreshadowing of modern-day immigration? No! I wouldn’t even consider what the natives experienced as immigration; it was war. A war with pure economic land-grabbing intent that completely ignores the value of human life is completely different from the unity of people. There is a clear difference between immigration and war but perhaps many people can’t see it, or maybe the fear of even a slight possibility of war is so overwhelming that illogical defensive instincts take over. Time and time again it seems that the only way to reduce xenophobia that stems from the fear of war is exposure to cultures. It is no wonder that the most culturally diverse places in America are also the most accepting.
