Museum Visit and Personal Challenge

I believe that the instructors of the TLC chose this trip so that we could formally blend each class’s concept into one experience. Writing about the experience in English, bonding with our seminar classmates, and looking at how Native Americans and westerners helped to shape our country for Human Geography. While I did not expect much from the Eiteljorg, I was happily rewarded with an entertaining time.
By approaching the visit as a student within a group I felt as if I was constricted by my group members so that I could only do what they wanted to do. Once I started wandering to what interested me though, I felt the freedom I wanted to explore what interested me. By looking at Native artifacts I was able to envision what a tribe’s society might look like.
I believe that trips to museums like this are beneficial to any student, and that somehow one or more classes can be connected to the museum. Average citizens however, I believe would not benefit as much, and would likely see the trip as a waste of time.
The Natives seemed to group their belief systems around the Earth and natural wonders, one tribe even believed that they were formed from thunder and lightning. Their preservation of the land and usage of natural resources helps to support the conservative claim.
While there were many similarities between different tribes’ languages including the use of symbols in writing, there always seemed to be different syllable patterns used between the different tribes.
The technology of these tribes compared to that of US settlers was fairly low, but more than enough to create a happy lifestyle for themselves. Their use of hides as clothing, housing, and decoration was something to marvel over. The engineering of an easily moveable house seemed to help their lack of irrigation systems.
To fully appreciate the visit to the Eiteljorg I had to wait a few days before continuing my reflection upon it. When looking back, I learned that I had gained a small but significant respect for the Indians who used to roam our lands. These people were so simplistic, so self-sufficient. To think of our current society living as these people did is trivial, the question of how the average modern man would live without technology arises.
To deepen my understanding of this, I attempted to avoid all of my gadgets for just one day, a single day. By the third hour I was earning to turn my cell phone on, I wanted to connect with my friends, something the people of old would have been able to do just by walking a teepees over.
My walk to work was something to remember, short but nerve-racking, I had to cross US36. Once I arrived at work I had to break my challenge for a moment to clock in. Once I was clocked in I took my spray bottle and tray and got to work.
Once I arrived home, I had decided that I simply could not take anymore of this experiment. I opened my laptop and began to prepare a Facebook post to complain to all of my friends about how much we take technology for granted, and for them to try to do the same- even if for only the nine hours I had achieved it.