The museum of cultural history isn't what you
might think; it is indeed about cultural history, but in general, not
restricted to Norway or Scandinavia. More interesting, it has
artifacts that were captured back in the days of the Vikings.
Instead of just displaying them, it was used as a conversation piece to
talk about what is a hot topic these days, although it is usually
applied to situaitons more recent, like Nazi Germany's spoils. In
those cases, who "owns" the objects, and is there an obligation to
return them to the original owners?
They had other
similiar philosophical questions posted around without attempting to
answer them.
All of which gave the museum (which was
fascinating enough just because of the displays themselves) an
interesting twist on what you might normally expect.
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Again, not something you expect to see in a cultural museum.
But it had us wondering if the reason Oslo seems so upscale and
prosperous compared to US and European cities is because the
endowment provides so much money that basic services and needs
are taken care of by the government. We wondered if the
museums in Oslo were so good because people could take the job
that interested them instead of the one that paid the most.
Certainly, it seems like they can affort to fund a lot of
museums, a state of the art public transportation system, and
free health care.
One interesting thing is that
unemployment benefits in Norway cover sixty two percent of your
prior earnings (up to some fairly high maximum). But
there's no sign of people taking advantage of the system. |
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Of course, they had some Viking things on display as well,
including the best preserved Viking helment in the world. There
were pieces that were exquisitely detailed, not what you normally think
of when you think "Viking."
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And closing with the Norwegian equivalent of a mummy, someone
buried (with other family members) in the floor of a church. And
one particular thing I found funny (along with learning the word
"inexpiable") ... one of the "big" crimes was waking up trolls.
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