The stories in documentary Destruction of Memory by Tim Slade is a perfect example of  “the victors write history.” The attack on culturally significant buildings is the destruction of both knowledge and identity. This fact should seem obvious, but it was only a revelation I had after watching the documentary. To attack physical embodiments of history is so genius, yet vile. The ruins of buildings are still traces of where humans once were, and a successful attempt of erasing a group as an educated people with civility and technology. Intentionally destroying these cultural buildings is now deemed as unacceptable. Why isn’t removing cultural objects looked at in the same light?

A culture is can be defined by its art and architecture (Williams 91). To remove a piece of that is to remove a piece of identity and history. UNESCO believes in “education, science, and culture in order to respect the diversity of other cultures and promote cultural understanding,” (UNESCO 2001). However, taking artifacts is not cultural understanding and goes against their definition that “culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features of a society or a group,” (UNESCO 2001). While sharing cultural objects may help with promoting cultural understanding, would it not make more sense to share replicas with outside nations instead of being left with a replica and having your history in a place with no historical connection, such as the Parthenon Marbles who have not seen home in centuries? An object of cultural internationalism has its location chosen by where it will benefit human kind (UNESCO 2001). But are we not just choosing which humans it would benefit more? Cultural objects become heritage of the nations that house them (Cuno). If a cultural artifact is placed in a foreign museum, why should the artifact become a part of the culture of foreigners instead of people who shared its land?

Knowledge is power but a nation’s identity is the history of its land. You cannot take that identity for your own in the name of education and understanding. Nations should make their history and objects open to the world in order to properly be understood and to educate on their culture, but they should not have it removed from them.

Works Cited

Williams, Raymond. Keywords. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 91–91.

Cuno, James. Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage. Princeton University Press, 2010.

“The UNESCO General Conference.” UNESCO, 2001.