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March 14, 2003
Symbolism
I was visiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum the other day, and came across a exhibit on this history of flight. Essentially it was nothing spectacular of an exhibit. The impression I got is that this exhibit has been here for awhile, and it hasn't really changed. I seem to remember it from a few years ago as well, but my memory may be wrong. I'm more interested in the 1950's style aircraft than any of the other aircraft within.
At the very end of the exhibit though were paintings of two women of aviation. One was French and the other was English. Both were portraits of aviators from the real early pioneering days of flight. The names of these women escapes me right now, and honestly the paintings weren't extremely memorable by themselves. What was memorable was the text above the French aviator saying "... wears the symbol of luck on her right breast pocket." Looking at the painting on the right breast pocket you find a scratched out, cut, and ripped area. The symbol of luck has apparently been stolen, or so I thought initially. Someone must really be in need of some good luck to steal for the museum. I began to look at other pictures of her, and found one that (I'm guessing) was the basis for the painting. The symbol itself was a swastika.
I remember being told that the swastika, for a long time before World War II, was a "happy" symbol, and did not suggest the same intonations that the Nazi party gave it. I can also remember seeing some Native American carpets that my parents had with this very symbol on it too. I never really looked into the history of it to prove it. It wasn't something terribly high on my list of things to learn about. This little bit of text made me think it was time to change that.
What is interesting to me that this symbol was so prevalent for good luck and life, but now it's instantly recognized as a symbol of hate. Doing some quick web research, it turns out a town in Canada renamed itself to Swastika after find a gold mine. The Buddhists and Hindu's use (and supposedly continue to use) the symbol for religious purposes (although in some cases direction is important). There is an interesting article by Chirag Badlani over on the iearn.org website talking about an experience with public reaction to the symbol, and some light details on the use of the symbol.
It's surprising to see that even with all of this history, someone would still deface an exhibit painting with this symbol on it. The painting is now covered by a plastic shield, but the damage has been done. A disappointing alteration to an exhibit done by a not-so-tactful means of hacking. The exhibit did do one thing though, it taught me a lot about the swastika symbol though I'm sure it wasn't the desired goal.
Posted by Dan at March 14, 2003 10:24 AM
Comments
I can't speak for the Buddhists, but the Hindus certainly use the swastika aplenty. In fact, in Nepal (the only officially Hindu kingdom), the swastika is the symbol chosen for a major political party (these are particularly important, since due to the high illeteracy rate, voting is done by stamping your preference with a pictograph for the party you are voting for.) On a more local front, the couple running the Dunkin Donuts next to my work have a couple swastikas politely positioned behind the counter.
The word 'swastika' come from Sankrit origins; from 'swastya' or 'health'.
Posted by: George Schlossnagle at March 17, 2003 06:27 PM