This was what I submitted for my final assignment of the course. I am not as creative as a lot of people who wrote odes, poems, etc. I just wrote what I felt. I hope you like it.
Option #1: Who owns the past?
Well, I really do not really know how to answer this assignment, but I am going to give it a go the way I understand it.
The past is something that happened before today, a few years ago, A
hundred years ago and so on. I do not think there is any specific
definition for this. It is a word used to describe events that occurred
before a specific time which can vary from place to place or person to
person etc. It is evident that a lot of things have happened or do
happen to finally end up where we are in the world today (i mean
situation wise). Historians, archaeologists and other people involved
have been able to identify and document the lives of people hundreds and
hundreds of years before now. The past is like a story of sorts.
I do not believe that the past belongs to any one person or any one
place. It belongs to everyone and the world in it's entirety. Many
different decisions and paths were taken before we get to where we are
now. We can only second guess what people of a certain time were
thinking based on their location at the time of some incident or in a
situation and their physical behaviour. We cannot begin to imagine what
would have been going through anyone's minds hence the point of second
guessing. For example, when the British had control of India, there were
many freedom fighters who stood up to fight for the independence of the
country. One of them for example was Mahatma Gandhi who strongly
believed in and followed a policy of 'ahimsa' (non-violence). Now let us
imagine a situation in which he did not follow such a policy. There is a possibility that many more wars or fights may have happened and India
may or may not have gotten it's independence when it did. Another part
of history we can look at are the world wars. Thinking of how the
countries were allied with each other, if even one country had later
changed it's position, the course taken by the was may have been
different than how we know it to be today. Thus the past ends up being a
culmination of different events, people, decisions and actions that has
led the world to arrive at where it is today.
Okay so I seem to have deviated a little. Moving back to topic, the
past belongs to everyone. No one person has the right to claim the past
or any event in the past. Archaeologically speaking, every structure,
monument and other things that have been uncovered, belongs to not one
person or nation but to the world as a whole. It should be available for
everyone to view, cherish and understand as well as study.
Archaeology's dirty secrets as this course sought to explain are some
basic things every person should be made aware of. I believe that it is
important for every person to understand and appreciate the history and
the legacy passed on to us from before and we should be careful and try
to preserve what we can for the future.
I really hope I haven't strayed too much from the topic and I hope
this response is alright because once I began writing, the words just
wouldn't stop. I have really enjoyed this course and I will ensure more
people are made aware about the need to preserve the architecture, artifacts and anything else we can for ourselves and the future. At the
end of the day, it is all just one huge story that doesn't seem to have
an ending.
