Lost in Translation: Germany’s Fascination With the American Old West
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Melissa Eddy
GERMANY---Hans Grunert is no stranger to requests from Native Americans regarding the display of sacred items among the headdresses, moccasins, jewelry and hundreds of other artifacts at the Karl May Museum, housed in a faux-log cabin behind a stately 19th-century villa in this eastern German town. “Up to now, scalps have always been considered war trophies,” Mr. Grunert said. The tussles over ownership of the scalps have come to reflect a broader cultural clash between the changing mores surrounding the care and repatriation of human remains in the United States and the fascination of many Germans with the mythology of the American West, celebrated to this day in countless summer festivals and literature. [link]
By Melissa Eddy
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| Lost in Translation: Germany's Fascination With the American Old West |