Modern Conflicts
The Iroquois Traditionalist Society has opposed the sale of False Face masks to private collectors and museums. The Society is very sacred and not to be shared, in any form, with those who do not belong to either the society itself or the tribe, whose members are sometimes involved in the curing rites without belonging to the society. Traditionalists insist that schools should not imitate the faces for projects. It is seen as a sign of disrespect to the Iroquois people and the False Face spirit. Many Iroquois also campaign to regain possession of masks that remain with private collectors or museums. Several Iroquois governments have pushed for the return of masks to the communities from which they came. The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. has returned many items of significant importance, including masks, and is still in the process of returning others.
The Onondaga Chief Tadadaho issued a statement online many years ago about the Haudenosaunee policies regarding masks. These policies prohibit the sale, exhibition or representation in pictures of the masks to the public. They also condemn the general distribution of information regarding the medicine societies, as well as denying non-Indians any right to examine, interpret, or present the beliefs, functions, or duties of these societies.
Read more about this topic: False Face Society
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or conflicts:
“Families have always been in flux and often in crisis; they have never lived up to nostalgic notions about “the way things used to be.” But that doesn’t mean the malaise and anxiety people feel about modern families are delusions, that everything would be fine if we would only realize that the past was not all it’s cracked up to be. . . . Even if things were not always right in families of the past, it seems clear that some things have newly gone wrong.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud. Marx showed the moving powers and the conflicts in the social-historical process. Freud aimed at the critical uncovering of the inner conflicts. Both worked for the liberation of man, even though Marx’s concept was more comprehensive and less time-bound than Freud’s.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)