Mexico City- Modern Day Traditions
Action
In Mexico City, we visited the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The ground floor was a standard display of seemingly identical pottery shards distinguished only by their labels (“Aztec vase,” “Mayan urn,” etc.). The rooms on the second floor contained displays of contemporary indigenous culture. These displays included dioramas with mannequins in colorful garb inside of thatch huts, surrounded by objects commonly used by indigenous cultures, such as pots and weavings. The dioramas also included seemingly incongruous items such as paintings of Christian saints, radios and plastic shopping bags.
Reflection
Walking through the museum, I thought of my family’s Christmas celebration. I won’t bore you with a detailed description of The Lunn Family Christmas, but suffice to say it combines some traditional German elements (opening gifts on Christmas Eve), some traditional American elements (Santa Claus has been known to leave gifts) and usually ends with us sitting around the TV watching a video. That is, like the indigenous families in the diorama, we incorporate new elements into the mix of older traditions.
Even though our family has begun using an artificial tree and we don’t decorate our tree with candles and garlands of popcorn and cranberries, I still think of The Lunn Family Christmas as a traditional event. I don’t believe that things stop being traditional just because a modern element is added. Moreover modern elements can become traditional. I appreciated how the museum recognized this in its exhibits of contemporary indigenous culture.
Question
How would you design a museum exhibit of your traditional abode?
In Mexico City, we visited the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The ground floor was a standard display of seemingly identical pottery shards distinguished only by their labels (“Aztec vase,” “Mayan urn,” etc.). The rooms on the second floor contained displays of contemporary indigenous culture. These displays included dioramas with mannequins in colorful garb inside of thatch huts, surrounded by objects commonly used by indigenous cultures, such as pots and weavings. The dioramas also included seemingly incongruous items such as paintings of Christian saints, radios and plastic shopping bags.
Reflection
Walking through the museum, I thought of my family’s Christmas celebration. I won’t bore you with a detailed description of The Lunn Family Christmas, but suffice to say it combines some traditional German elements (opening gifts on Christmas Eve), some traditional American elements (Santa Claus has been known to leave gifts) and usually ends with us sitting around the TV watching a video. That is, like the indigenous families in the diorama, we incorporate new elements into the mix of older traditions.
Even though our family has begun using an artificial tree and we don’t decorate our tree with candles and garlands of popcorn and cranberries, I still think of The Lunn Family Christmas as a traditional event. I don’t believe that things stop being traditional just because a modern element is added. Moreover modern elements can become traditional. I appreciated how the museum recognized this in its exhibits of contemporary indigenous culture.
Question
How would you design a museum exhibit of your traditional abode?
2 Comments:
At 9:26 PM, Jen said…
I like that the museum included modern items in the displays. We seem to rigidly define modern and traditional as two very different things - but something that we think of as traditional now, was at one time new and modern.
I used to love the old cartoons that showed the "Kitchen of the FUTURE!!" - does anyone remember those? But the crazy thing is that nothing seemed to remain that tied to the old or contemporary - it was all FUTURISTIC. But what is the reality? . .. we hold onto the old stuff that works, and we discard the old stuff that doesn't in favor of the new. Just because I have a CD player doesn't mean that I threw away my old records or tapes. I might replace them with CDs when they wear out, but I don't get rid of them the second a new technology hits.
And something else that this reminds me of ... sorry, this is getting to be long ... the whole plan-the-wedding thing - people get SOOO hung up on Tradition with a capital T when it comes to weddings and other symbolic events. To the point that they don't think about WHY they do something symbolic. I'll never forget the conversation with my mom over the veil thing . .
Mom - You're not wearing a veil!! (gasp)
Me - Nah, I don't like them.
Mom - But, you HAVE to.
Me - Why?
Mom - Because, well, because you have to. And you are supposed to be shielded from your future husband and presented to him .. blah blah blah.
Me - And that relates to my life how?
Luckily my mom laughed and gave up and I was happily veil-less.
But then - I'm not anti all traditions. I felt very honored to tie an old ribbon to my bouquet - the ribbon was from my grandmother's bouquet when she was married. And I carried a very old handkerchief that my mom and grandmother used.
Oh yeah, my point . . . tradition is an ever-changing thing that incorporates the old and the new, and eventually the new becomes the old, and something else takes it's place. Or doesn't. But it's still as relevant as the traditional.
Sorry :)
Jen
At 2:59 PM, lernerm said…
it's funny how we keep certain traditions from our childhood, even when they no longer make sense - the Passover seder in my case, which I still occasionally go to, even though there's nary a practicing Jew in sight. It's also interesting that in many cultures the "new" stuff is often valued more than the old, but in fact isn't nearly as good - the Michael Jordan t shirt found in Africa which isn't nearly as nice as the traditional garments, the bottle fed baby in Africa who is sick because of the new tradition of bottle feeding, as opposed to the old habit of breastfeeding.I'm afraid that the concept of newer means better has spread throught the world, (although there is the slow food movement in Italy). I just saw a new movie - the incredibles - it was nice, but not nearly as good as an old black and white like It's a wonderful life.
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