Thoughts from Week 3

I have enjoyed many different discussions so far this year! The last class period, though, especially made me think. We were trying to decipher the meaning and context of different artifacts, and despite our knowledge of history, the majority of our guesses were completely wrong. The difference between our answer and the truth often completely changed the story behind the artifact, and consequently, it also changed our perception of the culture from which the artifact was taken. This exercise made me wonder how many other historical objects we inadvertently do the same thing to. Before taking historical objects out of context and distorting their meaning to fit our preconceived notions about different cultures, we should take the time, do the research, and find the truth about both the object and the culture it represents. Doing this will help us have a much more well-rounded knowledge of history. I hope this class will help me do that!

Comments

  1. Emma RoseSeptember 15, 2021 at 5:12 PM

    I think that the point you make about how we distort the meaning of objects due to preconceived notions about other cultures is incredibly true. I think that even applies to objects we see in the future, rather than only historical objects. As Americans, I think we are not as exposed to other cultures of the world that we should be. This can lead to false assumptions made about people and the things they have or do. The solution to this has the same solution you present for historical artifacts; take the time to research other cultures! The whole concept of object reading was a new way to explain stereotypical ideologies to me, and I think it has so many useful applications!

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  2. Olivia SchienkeSeptember 16, 2021 at 12:40 PM

    Hey Seth! I agree completely with the point you made about how we may be deciphering a lot of things wrong and how we may not even know it. There are so many different ways of interpreting things and everyone thinks differently. This is why we need to be more skeptical about what we are seeing and hearing and we need to realize that not everything written by someone else is true. People can be very biased depending on the point of view they are looking at. Now that we are learning to think more critically, I hope we will be able to spot out those bias'!

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