Museum of Man
Balboa Park
May 30, 2016
We went with our middle daughter and her husband to the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. Meredith had visited that museum recently by herself, but she had not been in to see the special exhibit about cannibals, and the rest of us had not been there for many years.
We first explored the Beerology exhibit. It chronicles the history of beer making around the world. Many different cultures, using a variety of grains, have made beer. Each region has a separate display case and write up. Various ancient artifacts are displayed in the cases. Our son-in-law is a home brewer and was particularly interested in that exhibit.
We also spent considerable time in the special exhibit about cannibals, Cannibals: Myth and Reality, which is located in the separate exhibit space across Laurel Street from the main building. It is not a permanent exhibit, but it will run until 2018. The displays include interesting artifacts, videos, and explanatory displays. We were taken a little aback, though, by the moral relativist undertone to much of the exhibit. It is best summed up by a button Meredith picked up when leaving, which said “Cannibals are people, too.” Extensive space is devoted to survival cannibalism by Europeans and people of European descent, such as the Donner party, shipwrecked English sailors, and the plane crash survivors in the Andes. Little differentiation is made between survival cannibalism and ritual cannibalism. Neither the reasons for ritual cannibalism nor its relation to human sacrifice are explored in any depth. Our guess is that the curators were so leery of giving visitors unfavorable opinions about ethnic groups whose ancestors practiced ritual cannibalism, that they missed an opportunity to educate. The exhibit is entertaining, and at times informative, but it is not enlightening.
The adult admission price for the museum and cannibal exhibit combined is $20; for the museum alone it is $12.50. There are discounts for seniors, military, students, and youths. Parking is free in Balboa Park, but visitors may need to park some distance from the museum and walk or ride a shuttle.