In many or all cultures, history plays an overwhelming role. Oh, not necessarily the history we usually think of: who did what to whom when, but rather the connection between objects, time, and association. Museums run into this all the time. Replicas of almost any kind of artifact today can be made virtually indistinguishable from the original. Yet, any museum goer will far more appreciate, say, a firearm handled by Billy the Kid than a copy that would fool an expert. Or given the choice to be able to handle a 100-million year old tooth of a dinosaur as opposed to a plaster copy, no matter how good, nobody would choose the copy. Even in the field of art, similar biases show up. Numerous paintings have been thought to be those of masters, but when discovered to be frauds, no matter how masterfully executed, the value and appreciation has dropped precipitously.
It's clear that in many cases it's not the object itself
that's valued. Rather, it's that mystical sense of connection to past times and
past places.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.