The Marco Polo Syndrome

Marco Polo syndrome can be defined as "perceiving whatever is different as the carrier of life threatening viruses rather than nutritional elements (Kocur and Leong p. 218). This syndrome to me says that it is very wrong to adapt and change with time rather than thinking that change could be essential to life. It is meerely saying that you should stay authentic and true to your culture no matter what and produce art that was produced first in history. Here is a quote that demonstrates the want for change in Arican art from the reading: "If we have to fight relentlessly against colonialism, which castrates much contemporary art from Third World, we should not do it through nostalgia for the mask and the pyramid" (Kocur and Leong p. 2220). Latin America has also been influenced by the west and does not mind it. A quote from the reading states, "Many artists, critics and Latin American curators seem to be quite willing to become "othered" for the west" (Kocur and Leong pg. 220). This proves to me, that "traditional" art of centuries ago is not the route to take when producing art all of the time because we would all be missing out on how their art has evolved over time from influences by the West. Even traditional art had to be influenced by somebody.
However I do believe that too much western influence may not be good for other countries because "It is said that a village may be ignorant of what happens in the neighbouring village, but knows what happens in New York" ( Kocur and Leong p. 222). There has to be a happy medium with colonisation. Artists of that particular country should be influenced to a certain extent but not to the point where they don't care about their own heritage and the people and influences around them already.