{"id":28810,"date":"2020-01-12T17:27:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T23:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=28810"},"modified":"2020-01-12T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T23:27:08","slug":"trumps-willingness-to-destroy-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2020\/01\/trumps-willingness-to-destroy-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Willingness to Destroy Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the
Nasir al-Mulk Mosque (the Pink Mosque) in Shiraz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the midst of our recent, deadly skirmishes with Iran, President Trump at one point threatened to bomb 52 sites<\/a> that were \u201cimportant to Iran and the Iranian culture.\u201d\u00a0 Commentators quickly pointed out that doing so would violate the UNESCO World Heritage Convention<\/a> as well as the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict<\/a>. \u00a0(For just a sampling of those responses, see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.) \u00a0For my own part, I was struck by the President\u2019s understanding of \u201cculture\u201d and his willingness to destroy it.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cculture\u201d is used in different ways, with the oldest and most venerable having to do with tending to crops and animals.\u00a0 We hardly ever think of it this way, but the words \u201cagriculture\u201d and \u201chorticulture\u201d incorporate this understanding of the term.\u00a0 In the present, we might speak of somebody tending to a \u201cgerm culture\u201d in the laboratory.<\/p>\n

A more common use of the term \u201cculture\u201d denotes artistic performances such as ballet, opera, and theater or specific works of art, literature, and music.\u00a0 Those who treasure these performances or works are sometimes said to be \u201ccultured,\u201d and these people often take themselves to be the custodians of \u201chigh culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most importantly for purposes at hand, \u201cculture\u201d might be understood as a way of life.\u00a0 Anthropologists in particular study the beliefs and values, the practices and rituals of a given people, say the Samoans or the Lakota Sioux.\u00a0 A people\u2019s way of life is the foundation for how a people understands itself in the world.<\/p>\n

Where does President Trump come out on these matters?\u00a0 He is not much inclined to nurture or care for things, especially personal and international relations, and the Iranian sites he threatened to bomb did not strike him as works of art.\u00a0 Without much reflection, the President seems to have adopted a crudely anthropological understanding of \u201cculture\u201d and sees the destruction of the 52 sites as harmful to an \u201cimportant\u201d part of being Iranian.<\/p>\n

The literal inhumanity of such a plan should be underscored.\u00a0 The august Tomb of Cyrus near Persepolis, for example, preserves the bones of a venerated ancestor who ruled over the entire Middle East.\u00a0 The legendary Pink Mosque in Shiraz has stained glass windows that magically cast worshippers in a colored light.\u00a0 These sites and others illuminate Iranian history, demonstrate Iranian creativity, and count as crucial parts of the Iranian heritage.\u00a0 These sites enhance the quality of existence for Iranians as human beings.<\/p>\n

If President Trump\u2019s dark, vengeful fantasies ever became reality, the President would be harming and undermining the Iranian way of life.\u00a0 He would be destroying what anthropologists see as a \u201cculture.\u201d\u00a0 If the President actually did what he said he might do, he would be guilty of committing \u201ccultural genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the midst of our recent, deadly skirmishes with Iran, President Trump at one point threatened to bomb 52 sites that were \u201cimportant to Iran and the Iranian culture.\u201d\u00a0 Commentators quickly pointed out that doing so would violate the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as well as the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-federal-law-legal-system","category-international-law","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28810"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28815,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28810\/revisions\/28815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}