I entered a world with the first creatures of the earth and later was introduced to the first homogenous being, Lucy, who shared both ape and human qualities. I then dug into the culture of humans, both past and present, and saw the world transform before my eyes. It was as if I saw the whole world as one. I watched mankind thrive and fall, maintain and evolve, die and live through the objects before me. I was standing in the Michigan State University Museum’s cultural anthropology exhibit. The artifacts I was staring at were more than useless tools attached to unimportant numbers and facts. The artifacts symbolized the culture and knowledge of a people I had never known.

Ere Ibeji: two mini statues carved by the Yoruba tribe from West Africa. They are small wooden structures, the size of a 12oz water bottle, that abstractly display a human. The two have a triangular, fish-like head: flat nose, bulging eyes, thick lips, and ears protruding out the neck like fins. The creatures have broad shoulders that overarch skinny hips and sandaled shoes. In Yoruba culture, dolls are made to fulfill a missing role. In this case, the Ibeji dolls represent the spirit of a deceased twin. Whether they are placed on a shelf like a cremated family member or are carried around like a token is not explained. The answers to the how, why, and what question is unknown. However, the idea that the Yoruba have dolls for specific deceased family members to live through infer much about their perception of the afterlife: they believe the person still resides on earth, but in a different form, and therefore still requires attention.

Yap money: created by the people of the Yap Islands. Monetary value is placed on varying shells; the black lip pearl shell, the tortoise shell, and cowry shell necklace were typically of the least value. However, the cowry shell necklace's value depends on the status of the individual wearing it and the historical value attached to it. The gold lip pearl shell is exchanged as well, but is used for marriage because of its higher value. The shell is equivalent to one wife, and so the father will give shell money to the groom’s family to ensure his daughter’s safety. The most valuable “monies” on the Yap Islands are large stone disks that are ten feet in diameter. They are rarely moved, and more a symbol of an individual’s and village’s wealth. The large disk is displayed only in front of the men’s houses. Overall, Yap money represents the Yaps use of available resources for economic purposes. It is an idea dependent on environmental circumstances. Furthermore, the stone disks being displayed only in front of male houses and the father being in charge of exchanging money for his daughter shows the patriarchal control of the society.

Ceramic Arts of China: the Chinese were the first to innovate porcelain, replacing soft pottery and heavy stoneware, and their ideas eventually spread to western potters. The production of ceramics has excelled in China for a thousand years and the exportation throughout the East and West brought much prosperity to their economy. To exemplify this innovation, the museum displayed a dark green, porcelain, covered jar pedestaled on wood. The pottery was glazed in celadon, a discovery of the Chin dynasty (265-420 A.D.), to imitate the color of jade, which is precious to the Chinese. The artifact in whole represents the values of the Chinese both economically and artistically. It also justifies their cultures existence over centuries and reveals their evolution as a people. The pottery of the Chinese people shows technological advancement which correlates to the societal mobility from a tribe to a chiefdom to now a country. In this sense, the discovery of new technology and the complexity of an economic system results in a more advanced society.

Museums are not just community learning centers, but institutions that preserve the ideas and cultures of not only the past, but the present as well. There is more encased behind the glass than a doll, a shell or a bowl. There is the life of a culture.