Anthropology writing assignment Essay

Submitted By superman111
Words: 349
Pages: 2

Anthropology Writing assignment #10
All modern cultural behaviors have some sort of background, feeling, or mood associated with them that people who participate in these behaviors can appreciate and relate to. There were also cultural behaviors in the past that were similar, in many cases, to the ones that we take part in today. That being said if one were to examine these past behaviors that appeared to be similar to the ones that we partake in today, a modern individual might make the assumption that the reasons for the ancient behaviors were analogous to our reasons. Needless to say this is not always the case. In other cases one might try to change up the past to match current ideas and “tweak the past to be in line with the present.” Another issue with past cultural interpretations is that sometimes the details are tweaked by modern society in order to give the past culture a more nationalistic significance, to bring glory to ones nation. In Kohl’s composition he focuses on the construction of nationalistic past using archaeology, it seems that this practice is so common that there have been ethical guidelines put into place regarding it. It reads, “Ethical standards for accepting or rejecting nationalist uses of archaeology may vary in specific cases, but they should ideally satisfy the following three criteria: (a) the construction of one group's national past should not be made at the expense of others’; (b) all cultural traditions should be recognized as wor-thy