| This research enquires into the changing meanings of native cultural objects, and the ways in which public institutions participate in a process of legitimation of particular meanings. Specifically, government policy is seen to be an index of the historical changes in meaning, and to have contributed to particularized understandings which we have of these cultural objects through the enactment of legislation which reflects taste cultures. As such one piece of legislation, the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, is examined. First, the Act is placed in the historical context of the government policy--or absence of policy--related to the export of native cultural property since the 1800s. Second, the 1975 discussions in parliament regarding the Act are analysed, and the perceptions of legislators are examined. Third, interviews with individuals who are, or have been, intimately involved with the preparation and the implementation of the Act are analysed. The findings evidence not only a shift in attitudes but provide an example of the legitimation of cultural values, and of significantly changed awareness of the meanings of native cultural objects since 1975. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
