Volume 53, Number 2 · February 9, 2006
Whose Culture Is It?
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
'There is no document of civilization,' Walter Benjamin maintained, in his most often-quoted line, 'that is not at the same time a document of barbarism.' He was writing—some sixty-five years ago—with particular reference to the spoils of victory carried in a triumphal procession: 'They are called cultural treasures,' he said, but they had origins he could not 'contemplate without horror.'
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