Should Culture Be A Commodity - 957 Words

Should culture be a commodity? In other words, should culture be able to be bought and sold for a profit? Cultural artifacts, by any meaningful measure, currently are a commodity. They are bought and sold on the art market in places as far and wide as legitimate auctions in London or New York to sale on the thriving black market trade currently funding a brutal terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq. A more famous example, of culture acting as commodity, took place in 2007 when the Guennol Lioness, a famous Mesopotamian statue, was sold in Sotheby s for an astounding fifty seven point two million dollars. It was bought by a private collector and is now, of course, out of the public eye. Coming back to the central question, I am of the opinion that culture should not be a commodity due to its effect on the context of the objects as well as its effect on the cultural value of the artifacts to the various stakeholders in question. If the buying and selling of cultural artifacts does o ne thing well, it is the destruction of context. In The Ethics of Archaeology (2006), Robert Layton and Gillian Wallace state that â€Å"the crime of the undocumented antiquities trade is its undocumented destruction of context† (p. 57). As they point out, this destruction of context can be simple and in some ways benign. Something as simple as the removal of a Byzantine coin being removed from its original context â€Å"in a money pouch† to â€Å"a museum case or a collector s coin display board†Show MoreRelatedHow Wine Has Become More Of A Commodity1309 Words   |  6 Pages Wine has been considered a luxury in many cultures since before biblical times. However, â€Å"upon recent years wine has become more of a commodity†(Reeves). With this, it has decreased the luxurious value of wine, making it cheaper and less desirable. To learn when wine became the important commodity that it is today, the history of it must first be explored. An alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes, â€Å"wine has been apart of Mediterranean culture for more than 5,500 years† (Fagan, 14). ThereRead MoreJohn Fiske Argues That ‘Popular Culture Lies Not in the Production of Commodities so Much as the Productive Use of Industrial Commodities’1153 Words   |  5 PagesJohn Fiske argues that ‘popular culture lies not in the production of commodities so much as the productive use of industrial commodities’ (Fiske, J. 1990, Understanding Popular Culture. London: Routledge, p.28) Essay By the word â€Å"culture† we refer to the social circulation of meanings, values and pleasures to the processes of forming social identities. Popular is a more elusive term even than culture. One meaning of the word, is what is most popular is what appeals to theRead MoreEssay on The Effect of Consumer Culture on Education1242 Words   |  5 PagesEffect of Consumer Culture on Education Consumer culture has without a doubt affected my education. 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Meanwhile, there are various other factors influencing the purchases of consumer