Why is the Parthenon frieze a centerpiece of the British Museum, and the Temple of Benin housed in the Department of Ethnography? This program examines the huge and spectacular exhibitions from Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, and Africa carried home by British collectorsbearers of the Imperial torch and the white mans burden as well as those who took to heart Popes dictum that the proper study of mankind is man: a range of superb examples of tribal images, religious icons, and weapons of war; of masks, toys, totems, jewels, amulets, offerings, utensils, tools; in wood, clay, stone, bronze, gold and silver, mosaic, and jewels of all kinds; from the rudest to the most delicately ornate, from 6th-century West African bronzes to contemporary Javanese wood. (28 minutes)
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