The world has seen many events and movements related to the violation of or struggle for human and civil rights over the centuries, and a number of these have been memorialized in museums and historical sites. Many of the struggles over human and civil rights have a strong basis in religious and/or moral values of the people and cultures in which they occur.
For this assignment, you are asked to choose an important struggle in human history that has been memorialized, find artifacts that memorialize it, and discuss it with the class. Cover the following information in your initial post:
- Briefly describe the event that is memorialized, explaining whether it was related to race or ethnicity, gender, religious, sexual, or civil rights.
- Describe the significance of these artifacts to the event commemorated. Explain why you believe these artifacts are memorials. Do you believe that they represent the event they are commemorating well? Why or why not?
- Discuss why a culture would choose to memorialize such an event. What purposes does memorialization serve for cultures and societies (both those that are the subject of the memorialization, and those from other cultures and societies)?
- Are there observations that you can make about how religious or moral values are revealed or had an influence on the culture or event you chose?
- Discuss what you learned from this memorial. How might you apply this knowledge in your interactions with those from different cultural backgrounds?