Imperialist Nostalgia and Salvage Collecting

Essay # 4796

Anthropology > Cultural
Anthropology > North American
Ethnic Studies > North American

The possible problems and benefits of both salvage collecting and imperialist nostalgia of the early 20th century with regard to the Native American.

2,270 words () | 4 sources | MLA | 2002 United States

Paper Summary:

This essay explores two ways prevalent in the 20th century of preservation of the Native American culture: imperialist nostalgia and salvage ethnography, both of which are a reconstruction of the Native American culture from a Western viewpoint. The essay concludes that while the preservation accomplished was not faithful to the culture it strove to conserve, it did succeed in providing a vehicle for its remembrance, leading to the Native Americans' preservation of their own culture.

From the Paper:

"The dust kicked up in the frenzy of Western expansion and manifest destiny has settled and is finally beginning to clear. Now, in light of a new civilized nation, questions are being raised as to just what was stamped out in the process. This is not the first time these questions have been raised; in fact, such concerns existed even while the damage was being done. They were answered by voices overwhelmed with guilt and thus resulted in the salvage collecting and imperialist nostalgia whose births followed queue to that of our nation."

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APA Citation:

Imperialist Nostalgia and Salvage Collecting (2012, January 15). Retrieved February 13, 2012, from http://www.academon.com/Essay-Imperialist-Nostalgia-and-Salvage-Collecting/4796

MLA Citation:

"Imperialist Nostalgia and Salvage Collecting" 15 January 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. <http://www.academon.com/Essay-Imperialist-Nostalgia-and-Salvage-Collecting/4796>