"The Post-Colonial and the Postmodern" Homi K. Bhabha

To me one some of the most interesting points that Bhabba makes are his ideas about culture extending outside the so called high art, and becoming an uneven, incomplete production of meaning and value.

This reminded me of the Europeans who came to North America and started to purchase off of and trading with the Natives to obtain traditional objects such as masks. These were items that the Natives used in traditional ceremonies and in some cases were seen as scared. The Europeans saw them as pieces of art and displayed them in museums and in private collections.

These artifacts were put on display and for a lot of Europeans may have been their only contact with Native North Americans , from this lots of assumptions could have been made about the way they live and their culture. In many cases they weren't even displayed with the artifacts as the Europeans classed all the Natives as one and didn't recognize the distinct tribes that dotted the so called New World.

I think this example really shows the way the west saw those that they conquered and colonized . They were interested in very small amounts of their cultures that represent only a little of who they were . They didn't really respect the Natives as intelligent people and just saw them as something else to exploit whether for their land or their cultural artifacts such as the masks.