Jay Lemke's message on the contradictions of the thought-provocative term
coined by Edouard is very interesting and stimulating...
While Jay responded to the propositional content of Ed's message, I'd
like to respond to the emotional content of his message (please bear with
me, I know it's a simplistic dualist understanding of texts :-) !). Ed
seems to be conveying a lot of frustrations about things lost, not just
artifacts, but "practices", but perhaps not just "practices", but also
values, ways of life and modes of existence, ... am I right, Ed?
Ed asked, Why can't we have a 16th century church now?
Well, there may indeed be one, e.g., the Mennonite community strives to
preserve their religious beliefs, but not just beliefs, but also way of
life, way of existence, means of survival, ... they also preserve what
you may call historical artifacts, e.g., their clothes, means of
transportation (horse-drawn carts)...
But I guess they don't say "preserve" themselves; it's us who look at
them and say "they preserve..."; I guess they think it's just "the" way
things and life should be...
Well, I like Edouard's comment that most theories ignore the fact that
things are inter-related... as if a theory is decontextualized and "true"
in any contexts.
I also like Jay's comments that museums decontextualize things! In
Canada, there are many places where they put up Indian museums as
"tourist attractions"... I've been to some, and everytime I was there, I
couldn't help feeling a kind of deep sadness rising up in me... what have we
done to
such a vibrant and lively culture... and now all is left is the dead
corpse of culture taken away from their homeland, detached from their
lifeworld... and where are those people who made and used those beautiful
"artifacts" that are on display now? What do we have to "celebrate" in
such a museum? Except mourning... mourning of a wonderful culture that
has been taken away... from the civilization of men an women...
Life and the world do not always go the way we want them to go, Ed... life
moves onwards (or backwards, or "side"wards), practices change, people change,
tools change, systems change, values change, our modes of existence
change... for better or worse...
The Chinese in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries didn't want to accept that... they were forced to change
by the products and new forces that had arisen from the Industrial
Revolution...
people coming in warships, armed with guns and canons, bombed open the
door of ancient China and forced her to change... "Hey! Trade with us!",
they said; "We just want to trade!"... so, the Hong Kong History books
call the Opium War the "Trade War"... "we only wanted to trade your tea,
silver, silk with our opium," they said... "The world is changing...
moving towards free trade," they said...
Anyway, if you are overwhelmed with frustrations, just read the history
of different peoples and cultures... and you'll know... "Hey! What the
heck!"... We have to rise above these frustrations... and do whatever we
need to do to make our world a nicer one (well, whatever little we can
do...)
Angel