Indigenous culture vs Western industrialism culture

Article #38:

Indigenous Models of Museums in Oceania by Sidney Moko Mead 

Wow, so it was really interesting to read about "museum" type institutions or customs that are non-Western. And really, the notion of the custom house really makes so much sense when you get down to it. Really giving honor to the art by contemplating it for extended periods of time, and even sleeping over in the building so you can continue to digest the work late into the night and even the next day.
However, I do think our culture has too short of an attention span for this. The author is right in saying that in the west, "people are happy to be anonymous and prefer to look in their own particular way without fuss." The type of museum that we are familiar with really does suit our culture, and the many urbanized areas we have. But the author is also right in saying that the average museum institution requires extreme specificity and a large amount of highly trained people on board, rather than in the indigenous custom houses where they just let the objects be. Literally, because within a decade when the objects are falling apart or rotted, they just replace them with more current objects and move on with life. Really, really interesting to observe the huge difference between the cultures.

Do I love Western culture? This is a question I've been wrestling with since I worked with Latino students this past summer. The way Mead describes the indigenous people in the article sounds a lot like Mexican culture. They take their time, finishing one thing before moving on to the next. We in Western culture are always on a time schedule, always multitasking, but we're also always moving forward. We don't always enjoy life, but is that really the point? This is rhetorical, it really could be the point. We find ourselves going places we never dreamed of going, because of hard work. Not that other cultures don't work hard, it's just often geared in a different direction. We complicate things, and many other cultures keep things simple. I enjoy being around other cultures and taking things slow sometimes. Both times I have been to Mexico, I enjoyed this aspect of their culture. But could I live in it? Something interesting to think about.

Anyways, in conclusion it's cool to see how different aspects of culture, such as perception of time, really affect museum culture as well. Everything in society affects museums, it would seem!