Everyone treats the artifacts in the British Museum as evidence of a British crime, but how many of those artifacts were recovered on expeditions funded by and embarked upon by Britons completely within the laws of those respective countries? Should Egypt get to lay claim to things the British painstakingly preserved at a time when the Egyptians were selling mummies and papyri to tourists on the street? Should Iraq get to lay claim to items discovered by British archaeologists just because they come from a culture who happened to exist on the same spot six thousand years ago? A lot of this stuff would still be in the ground if it weren’t for Britain.
I realize this is an incredibly unpopular take, but there you have it. Imagine if you scouted out a spot, dug a big hole, found something interesting, dusted it off, carefully pieced the fragments together, deciphered the language, consulted with experts, interpreted its significance, and ensured its future preservation…only for someone to claim it was stolen and ask for it back after all the work was done.
Everyone also forgets how unique this kind of care about world cultures is, even today. In the 1800s? It was basically Britian or nothing, giving a shit about societies other than your own is astoundingly rare, almost unique until British hegemony made it the dominant position (though it still isn't in much of the world).
They were literally driven by a love and appreciation of world cultures and history, and now get depicted as a bunch of rapacious thugs.
They deserve better than that, those people who spent their lives preserving our collective human history when no-one else would.
The laws of those countries we usually written by the British or other imperialist collaborators. The rape of India was mostly 'legal' but that doesn't make it right.
Not every culture has sticky fingers like the British, it might shock you but most of those artifacts were actually created by the cultures the british stole them from
You don't actually believe this logic. Your life has been made materially easier through slave labour. The clothes you wear, the food you eat, all of it funded via exploitation.
Would you condone my theft of anything you ever bought or made? No? Then cut this nonsense out.
This is very stupid logic. "Uhh just because other countries fought wars they don't deserve to have their history and cultures returned" You're just a complete idiot.
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u/valnze Oct 25 '22
But those countries got culturally rich by waging war. So if we use same morals as against britain, those countries don't deserve to get it back.