Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 122

118

Popular Culture Review

As the representative of the prestige and nationalism associated with
museums, Indiana’s occupation is legitimized in the eyes of the West. He becomes
part of the process of pillaging for science and art. In another sense, he appropriates,
selectively, the best of that other culture, all the while being granted the status of a
classic western hero.
In this role, Indiana Jones leads expeditions to seek out and take the riches
of other worlds. Fundamental among his journeys through mountains and deserts,
in and out of decaying temples and exotic cities with curses attributed to other
cultures and perpetuated by the films, he is on a quest for rights of possession and
property (Marchetti 188). He is allowed to intervene in the rights of other nations
(like Captain Kirk and his crew) and their cultural and religious affairs. This is
done with such brazenness in the films that, to Western eyes, it seems completely
natural. Killing, maiming and torturing are expected and portrayed, but even these
play a secondary role to obtaining the