The Flight to Turkey

The flight to Ankara was my first trip out of the country and I learned very quickly that the world is honestly not such a huge place. It probably sounds tacky, but in those six hours, I began a week long process of experiential realization that the world exists independently and continually apart from my small knowledge of it in America. Since this was the first time I left the States I'm glad that I had the opportunity to visit so many countries as well as visit countries like Turkey and Cyprus to experience such a varied mixture of cultures. I particularly remember flying into Ankara and being struck by the ubiquity of mosques across the inhabited parts of the landscape. It is very simple to call a country 'Muslim' and far more difficult to envision just how different that actually is than American life. The difference was immediately striking.

The first half of a full day on our trip was spent visiting the Anatolian Civilizations Museum. It was an odd experience. I have visited the MET, and several smaller museums before, but the realization that the artifacts displayed in the Anatolian Civilizations Museum came from the country they were displayed in was really quite amazing.

Last semester, I did a project for an anthropology course researching the use of archeology in historical selectivity. Since then I have had my eye on the manner in which museums emphasize or ignore different aspects of their history. The layout of the museum was both clear and interesting, but I felt like the Anatolian Civilizations Museum could have more accurately displayed the country's history. There was a strong emphasis on prehistory in the museum without much of a focus on more recent cultures.