American Museum Of Natural History Essay

The American Museum of Natural History is full of exhibits showing different parts of the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean. Ever since I first visit on a field trip while in elementary school, I have gone back to visit the museum numerous times. The museum is located in New York City, which I only live fifteen minutes away from making the commute easy for me. I decided to come to The American Museum of Natural History mainly because of the proximity, and also since I get to decide how much I want to pay to enter the museum. The recommended price of a ticket to enter is twenty-two dollars, but I usually only pay five dollars. My close friend, coincidentally, needed to visit the museum as well for an assignment. He had to attend the museum with one of his classes, and I decided to come along even though I was not in this class. My friend’s professor did not mind, and I toured the museum with his class.

The museum is huge, and after just looking at animals my feet usually start to hurt so I never get to see every single exhibit. During this visit, I first went to see The Hall of Mexico and Central America. The hall was predominantly full of artifacts and models of monuments found in Mexico that were created by the Aztecs. During week five, I read “History and Power” which spoke about the Aztec empire. The reading said, “Human sacrifice was a key element of the political and religious system, and by the late fifteenth century the Aztecs began to make war with their neighbors with the sole objective of capturing future victims” (p. 6), the Aztecs relied on human sacrifice and made it into a huge part of their routines. Evidence of this human sacrifice was found in the museum, when I saw various artifacts that were made out of body parts. One artifact was a human femur bone that was turned into a musical instrument by the