I, under an obligation to vote with the side with whom I defended, agree with the "No" side of this argument and not just because it's the one I presented but because I believe that Keesing's argument IS fundamentally flawed as he failed to recognize a legitimate portion of the cultures that he was analyzing and therefore (by only citing "haole" ( Read more... )

I think that the author of the no point of view had a valid idea on the fact that lots of people only go by western documents and ignore oral tradition, local mythologies, rituals, and geneology which is not sited work by scholars. A lot of people have a false idea on exactly what a certain cultures traditions are, such as native Hawaiians. People ( Read more... )

On this issue I would be more apt to side with James Clifford than with Dennis Dutton, not just because of Clifford’s argument but because of a point that Dutton reiterates: that no exhibition can provide a complete context for ethnographic objects. Each exhibit is influenced by a number of factors, all of which will pollute the pure representation ( Read more... )

In looking at this topic I would lean more to the yes side of the debate. The way that some people look at places like Hawaii is far from the real deal. The image that we get is this paradise where woman are dancing their pinaapples all ove the place and it one big party that everyone is invited to. In reatity though there is a culture that lives ( Read more... )

I would have to agree with much of what the "yes" position written by Keesing said but also have to take into account some of the objections of Trask when she writes for the "No" position though her tirades are irritationg. To some extent Keesing makes a good point that traditions are often seen and understood from an outside perspective when they ( Read more... )

On this issue I am going to side with Trask's opinion that native people's today do not invent their own traditions. However, since culture's are constantly changing, wouldn't that mean that people may evolve and their culture may evolve so that new traditions are created? I also thought Trask was a little harsh with her criticism of Keesing, and ( Read more... )

Although the 'No' author was indeed, shall we say, passionate, I do agree with points of her view. She presented the facts that the ukulele, hula dances, pineapples, etc, are part of a 'tourist' idea of what the 'natives' do and have done for thousands of years. I really feel like tourists play a huge role in stereotyping people from other ( Read more... )

Well, for this issue I lean towards the 'yes' argument. I do agree that museums misrepresent ethnic communities around the world. I believe that no matter how hard a museum tries to correctly display a culture, it will never be exactly as if a person goes and directly observes a culture to get a true sense of what it is like. I is like the study of ( Read more... )

I believe with the second author, the hawaiian activist, even though I found her argument a little bit jaded and emotional. I think that the problem with the first author's argument is the assumption that external influences are the only force which affects a peoples' traditions. I believe that external forces do influence traditions, but that the ( Read more... )

I’m not sure who to side with this time. They both have interesting points and my heart has a hard time agreeing or disagreeing with either one on this point. The true is too tough to see with only these data points ( Read more... )