Souvenirs--cultural appropriation or treasured memories?

When I visit a new country, I make a note for myself to enter at least one museum, taste at least one traditional dish and purchase at least one authentic souvenir. After all, what can be a better keeper than an African mask, a traditional wooden handicraft or a tribal bamboo necklace? Many things, actually.

Exotic souvenirs and primitive art have long attracted both tourists and collectors. For some reason, it seems people are attracted to the thought of capturing the authentic and taming it by incorporating it in their modern, 21st-century lifestyles. But rarely do we see this practice as a cultural appropriation.

For most of us the purpose of souvenirs is to evoke memories. Even the meaning of the actual word souvenir in French corresponds to the act of remembering. It is fascinating how a mere look at a physical object that is associated with a given experience can make a person travel back in time and space and relive that moment. "The marvel of souvenir buildings is that the identical miniature sparks in each of us extravagantly different webs of remembrance," writes cognitive scientist Donald Norman in The Design of Everyday Things. But souvenirs in the form of native art are not simply carriers of sentimental value--they are the cultural products of indigenous people. Continue reading