Last Updated on August 18, 2024
There is no better eye-opener to what it actually means to be human than a visit to San Diego’s thought-provoking Museum of Us located in historic Balboa Park.
I had visited years before when it was called the Museum of Man. I found it interesting then, but in a scientific and somewhat emotionally detached, anthropological wat. I love science, so it didn’t necessarily bother me, but like many museums, people who were not into these types of things could find the museum stuffy and dry.
On my last visit, I found the new name and face of the museum both poignant and refreshing. Its exhibits ranged from the fascinating history of beer, the mysteries of the Mayans, and the Native Americans who lived in our area, to emotionally charged displays on undocumented immigration and the concepts of race. The museum took me on a deeply moving journey and left an indelible mark on my psyche.
“BEERology”
This small and entertaining display highlighted the fact that mankind has enjoyed thousands of years of beer history. Far from a modern invention, beer makers have been plying their craft since 4000 BC in the Fertile Crescent.
In California, winemaking is a huge industry, however, San Diego locals find BEERology especially interesting since our city is one of the premier centers of the craft brew scene especially renowned for its IPAs. Exhibits share information from many early civilizations including ancient Egyptians, Sumerians and Chinese who developed and perfected the art of brewing in a variety of ways.
The exhibit is fun and enlightening and reveals the strong link of beermaking to various cultures and a continuity with mankind stretching across the globe from ancient times to our modern area.
“Maya Peoples: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth”
Dominating the main floor of the museum is the current exhibit on the Maya Peoples. Massive tall and round stelae (upright stone columns) with elaborate carvings showcase the mystery and artistry of these ancient people. They evoke a sense of awe and mystical curiosity for a culture so unlike the Native Americans.
Rather than focusing just on the ancient past of the Mayans, the collection centers on Maya continuity and the unbroken Maya spirit whose languages, ceremonies and culture have formed a common bond with the land they dominated — a kinship that exists to this day.
This fascinating display helps visitors understand the histories of these remarkable people and to honor the past, present and future Maya generations that inhabit Mesoamerica.
Two huge murals adorn the back wall of the exhibit. Muralist and Maya community consultant Alicia María Siu’s colorful renditions, titled K’AJLAY SUUM ((Thread of Memory/Memory Cord) and B’ATZ’AL Q’IJ (Thread of Time in K’iche’) serve to highlight the Mayan people’s continuity throughout the ages.
“Kumeyaay: Native Californians”
San Diego, including the Museum of Us, sits upon the unceded ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay Nation. Somewhat forgotten in the conquest and expansion of Western civilization, the Kumeyaay peoples have lived here for millennia and still maintain a strong reverence and connection to their ancestral homeland.
The Kumeyaay Nation maintains its political sovereignty, governance and cultural traditions. It remains a vibrant Indigenous community complete with dedicated artists, innovators, leaders, educators, professionals, parents, and caregivers.
The big three at the heart of Kumeyaay peoples’ way of life have always been tradition, culture and family. The exhibit highlights the continuity of the Kumeyaay community honoring its resilience, ancestors, and future.
Displays portray the Native Californians’ remarkable adaptation to life in the deserts, mountains and coasts of Southern and Northern Baja California, and how they’ve developed specific skills and means to thrive within these diverse environments.
The arrival of Spanish settlers in the mid-1700s brought profound change to the Kumeyaay way of life, but those traditions persisted. Today, the 13 bands of Kumeyaay People are located on San Diego County reservations and four additional bands reside in present-day Baja California, Mexico.
Displays of intricate pottery and basket making, food procurement, and tools reveal their ingenuity in forging a thriving culture. Others showcase Kumeyaay dress and adornment, traditional medicines, games, and ceremonies that highlight the rich cultural heritage of these remarkable people and their living traditions
Another fascinating display was the Kumeyaay Cosmology Dome. For countless generations, the Kumeyaay People have studied the night sky and developed a deeply spiritual cosmological belief system. Their My Uuyow (sky knowledge) is reflected in a star map with its Kumeyaay-named constellations. This sky knowledge is also highly relevant to the Kumeyaay Mat’taam (calendar year).
“Hostile Terrain 94”
The most poignant exhibit I found in the Museum of Us is the story of the area’s undocumented immigration.
“Hostile Terrain 94” is a unique participatory map installation created by the Undocumented Migration Project. This non-profit research collective’s goal is to raise awareness about the harsh realities migrants face crossing the US–Mexico Border. The map focuses on the innumerable almost daily deaths since the U.S. Border Patrol policy “Prevention Through Deterrence” was established in 1994.
The policy was intended to discourage undocumented migrants from attempting to cross the US-Mexico border near urban ports of entry. The Border Patrol closed off historically frequented crossing points funneling individuals through more harsh and remote regions, such as the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona.
Migrants driven by the hope of a brighter and safer future still came, and since 1994, more than six million people have attempted this perilous journey. “Hostile Terrain 94” is an interactive display comprised of over 3,200 handwritten toe tags, geolocated on a wall map, representing all the migrants who were found dead trying to cross the unforgiving Sonoran Desert. Many have no names and some were found years after their untimely passing.
Another display provides relics recovered with the dead. Clothing, tennis shoes, toys, canteens and backpacks — all somber reminders that these tags represent human lives lost in a desperate search for a better life.
The exhibit also tells the story of the timeline of government policies to control or reduce legal and illegal immigration into the United States that ultimately produced the conditions that forced people fleeing their homeland to attempt this journey through such merciless territory.
“Hostile Terrain” is a sober reminder that there are powerful forces afoot that lead desperate people to forego their worldly possessions and risk their lives in a quest to share in a life most Americans take for granted.
“Race: Are We So Different?”
The term “race” is man’s invention. A way to categorize people that in reality is based largely on myth, folklore, geography, and assumptions unsupported by genetics or biology. Perhaps this is the most fitting of all the exhibits in the Museum of Us, for race is how society tries to frame who we are when we are all really just human.
The exhibit debunks many of the misunderstandings about race using the lens of human nature and biology. Not only does the display explain the origins of race and racism, but it also educates visitors on the impact of society’s racial labeling and how we can better deal with them in a more enlightened manner.
What once was a temporary exhibition, the Museum of Us has permanently installed this award-winning collection created by the American Anthropological Association and the Science Museum of Minnesota. The exhibit inspires and educates school children and teachers, the general public and community groups alike on racial labels.
My wife and I were especially intrigued by the display of how the US Census would racially categorize individuals across various intervals of our nation’s history. Equally fascinating and extremely insightful were the photos of individuals, many of mixed race who struggled with how they identified themselves, and how others viewed them.
“Cannibals: Myth & Reality”
Who isn’t fascinated, repulsed, and intrigued by the concept of human cannibalism? Located in a Balboa Park annex just across the street, the Museum’s exhibit “Cannibals: Myth & Reality” is a must-see and is included in the Museum of Us ticket.
This thoughtful and comprehensive dive into the practice is revealing. Cannibalism has been around for countless centuries in a variety of customs, beliefs, rituals, and unfortunate circumstances. As to who are or have been cannibals, the list surprisingly ranges from European kings and queens, unfortunate Western civilization sailors and struggling American colonists, to accident survivors, native tribes throughout the world, and more.
This exhibit strives to thoughtfully put visitors into the shoes of people who were faced with real, difficult decisions, and to make people ask themselves if given the same circumstances, would they make the same choices? Nothing brings this question home more than the short film of the first-hand account of the Uruguayan rugby players who, trapped high in an Andes Mountains plane crash in 1982, resorted to cannibalism to survive. The plight of California’s unfortunate Donner party is likewise examined in an interactive display that lets visitors make decisions along their perilous route.
Indeed, rather than just focusing on the macabre aspects of cannibalism, “Cannibals: Myth & Reality” delves deeply into this taboo subject in a respectful manner. It comprehensively examines cannibalism with insight and emotion, cutting across the full spectrum of human timelines, cultures, and belief systems to arrive at a deeper understanding of this complex behavior.
Respect for the Dead
The renaming of the museum also came with a mission to create a more sensitive approach to respecting the culture and beliefs of the people in their exhibits. Previously, Egyptian mummies and Kumeyaay remains were showcased in collections. While these remains had been taken from burial sites for scientific research and display, it was done without the express permission of the deceased, their families or their cultural communities.
Museum policy now states. “The Museum of Us recognizes that all people should have the right to decide how their bodies, and those of their relatives and ancestors, will be treated after death. For each of the individuals whose remains are held at this museum, we will seek out descendants with whom we can consult on how to best care for the remains of their forebearers.”
Perhaps this more than anything else reflects the fact that this is no longer the Museum of Man. It is indeed the Museum of Us— all of us.
