I was working on the cranial collections, and it just struck me as ironic that here were people coming to see this gory, primitive, savage culture that they were almost fantasizing about and creating without really understanding what they were seeing, and all the while these vast -- I mean hundreds of thousands of skulls in our museums, all across Europe and the States -- were kind of upholding this Enlightenment pursuit of scientific rationality.
Saat saya tengah meneliti koleksi tengkorak, tiba-tiba saya merasakan ironi bahwa orang datang ke museum ini untuk melihat budaya primitif dan biadab ini dan mereka mungkin berimajinasi tentangnya dan membuatnya tanpa benar-benar memahami apa yang mereka lihat dan sementara itu, ratusan ribu koleksi tengkorak di museum-museum kita, di Eropa dan Amerika -- seperti mendukung ide Masa Pencerahan yang mengejar rasionalitas ilmiah.