Museos & Downtown Lima

I caught a taxi at 9:30am, and picked up Reini on the way to meet Lisandro at the Museo de la Nacion. Doris called the taxi for me - it is not safe to get into any taxi, and it is most safe to call a company that you have pre-registered with (something else I am not used to in Peru). I can't remember if I've explained who Reini and Lisandro are. Reini is the wife of an Australian engineer who has temporarily relocated here to work for the company. Lisandro is an instrumentation engineer in the office. Reini and I arrived at the Museo de la Nacion, and waited a
few minutes for Lisandro.



The museum has several floors, but only three were open to the public at that time. The first floor was a history of culture.



It was fascinating to see the variety of artistic styles, shapes, colors, and patterns. You could see the items evolving over time, more complex, different colors, representing different things. Some were in the shape of men, others animals, still others inhuman creatures, imagined beings.



It was interesting to see some of the things were items that are still commonplace today. A mortar and pestle, a collandar. I suppose we've come up with alternatives to a mortar and pestle, although many people still have them. But a collander... what a basic invention, figured out so many thousands of years ago, and something we will never be without. Fascinating!

These things were the necessities of life - to hold water, to cook and eat. Activities of life-giving necessity. But I don't believe any culture has been devoid of another necessity - that of pleasure. Jewelry and music, two more things that have certainly evolved over time, but still remain a necessary and highly prized part of every culture in existence today. Aside from providing pleasure in life, these things are distinct to various cultures and ways of life. The differences in them are what define one culture from another. And yet they still represent growth of technologies, skills, and capabilities of races and groups.

When I wasn't fascinated by the variety of items and styles, I marvelled at the intricacy of the items, or even the simplicity of them. Today, it is simple to make a clay pot or a suite of armor. I suppose I give us too much credit and those of the past not enough - after all, they pioneered in some way or another all the methods and technology we had today. But I still wonder - who first discovered that by pounding out a substance gathered from the ground, you could create something strong enough to protect yourself? Who learned how to mix ground substances and water and fashion it into a clay pot that survived until now? All these things we take for granted now must have taken so much more energy and thought to create initially, and for many centuries afterwards. But how did they dream up these things? Who would have thought to put two and two together and fashion some pipes together and blow across them, to make music?

I wish I had a time machine to travel back - just to observe - these moments of invention that so dramatically shaped our history and future.

It was interesting to observe the change in culture brought by the Spanish, when they first arrived and settled on this part of the continent. The most visible change (in the museum) was the altered religious beliefs. The Spanish brought with them Catholicism, and all the traditions and ideas it encompassed.