Should we stop exhibiting dead bodies?

[The Original Happy Goat]

There's a group in the UK House of Commons right now arguing for the repatriation of human remains to countries they were taken from. The idea is that it's offensive and insensitive to put up as museum exhibits the remains of actual human beings.

This isn't an entirely new concept for us Americans, who already have laws about respecting native American remains. But I wonder how people actually feel about it, on a base level. Look at this guy:

That's Ramesses the Great. Not some statue of him. That's his actual corpse. A real human being. He lived more than three millennia ago, and his remains are currently on display in a museum in Cairo (so this question is not simply about colonialism). How much time must pass before desecration of a corpse becomes scientific inquiry? Is it okay that we have these bodies just sitting around in fancy buildings, for people to pay a nominal fee to gawk at?

Or should we shut the whole enterprise down, and rebury these unfortunate souls?

Curious what people think about this.

 

[BradStevens]

There's a group in the UK House of Commons right now arguing for the repatriation of human remains to countries they were taken from. The idea is that it's offensive and insensitive to put up as museum exhibits the remains of actual human beings.

This isn't an entirely new concept for us Americans, who already have laws about respecting native American remains. But I wonder how people actually feel about it, on a base level. Look at this guy:

That's Ramesses the Great. Not some statue of him. That's his actual corpse. A real human being. He lived more than three millennia ago, and his remains are currently on display in a museum in Cairo (so this question is not simply about colonialism). How much time must pass before desecration of a corpse becomes scientific inquiry? Is it okay that we have these bodies just sitting around in fancy buildings, for people to pay a nominal fee to gawk at?

Or should we shut the whole enterprise down, and rebury these unfortunate souls?

Curious what people think about this.

The remains aren't souls. It's inanimate matter.

Display away. Unless actual living people who knew them are still alive and don't want that. But that is a consideration for the living, not the dead.

 

[The Original Happy Goat]

The remains aren't souls. It's inanimate matter.

Display away. Unless actual living people who knew them are still alive and don't want that. But that is a consideration for the living, not the dead.

So once a few generations pass and there's no chance anyone alive knew them, it's fine? We could dig up the remains of Lincoln and put them on display, and you'd have no problem with that?

You might be right, I'm just playing devil's advocate.

 

[BradStevens]

So once a few generations pass and there's no chance anyone alive knew them, it's fine? We could dig up the remains of Lincoln and put them on display, and you'd have no problem with that?

You might be right, I'm just playing devil's advocate.

I'd have no problem with that but wouldn't really be interested in seeing it.

I don't think there is a right or wrong here. Merely preference or culturally relative mores.

 

[The Original Happy Goat]

I'd have no problem with that but wouldn't really be interested in seeing it.

I don't think there is a right or wrong here. Merely preference or culturally relative mores.

I think you're take is probably the most logical. But I think if we juxtapose mummies in museums against digging up dead presidents, we'll find that other takes are more prevalent.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Largely speaking they show remains from other cultures. No one has dug up Napoleon or Nelson (or Lincoln) to display. So there is some thought it involves some form of racism.

While it doesn't interfere with my religious beliefs, it does with other people's. So it really makes sense to stop and actually return the remains

For those not agreeing, what year will it be OK to dig up the American cemetery at Normandy?

 

[Lucy01]

Largely speaking they show remains from other cultures. No one has dug up Napoleon or Nelson (or Lincoln) to display. So there is some thought it involves some form of racism.

While it doesn't interfere with my religious beliefs, it does with other people's. So it really makes sense to stop and actually return the remains

For those not agreeing, what year will it be OK to dig up the American cemetery at Normandy?

But you have no problem with killing babies do you?

 

[Mas-sa-suta]

But you have no problem with killing babies do you?

Display those remains.

 

[iuwclurker]

There's a group in the UK House of Commons right now arguing for the repatriation of human remains to countries they were taken from. The idea is that it's offensive and insensitive to put up as museum exhibits the remains of actual human beings.

This isn't an entirely new concept for us Americans, who already have laws about respecting native American remains. But I wonder how people actually feel about it, on a base level. Look at this guy:

That's Ramesses the Great. Not some statue of him. That's his actual corpse. A real human being. He lived more than three millennia ago, and his remains are currently on display in a museum in Cairo (so this question is not simply about colonialism). How much time must pass before desecration of a corpse becomes scientific inquiry? Is it okay that we have these bodies just sitting around in fancy buildings, for people to pay a nominal fee to gawk at?

Or should we shut the whole enterprise down, and rebury these unfortunate souls?

Curious what people think about this.

First thought, Ramesses doesn’t look very Great anymore. We need to improve the science and technology of mummification. (Or has some necrophiliac already done that? 😱)

 

[iuwclurker]

The remains aren't souls. It's inanimate matter.

Display away. Unless actual living people who knew them are still alive and don't want that. But that is a consideration for the living, not the dead.

I don't think there is a right or wrong here. Merely preference or culturally relative mores.

As soon as you introduce soul you’ve moved outside the realm of modern empirical science and culturally relative mores get more complicated, at least in the US where much of the political divide corresponds to a divide between empirical science and spirituality.

What’s interesting about your take is it’s religious and yet justifies not paying homage or respect to the “inanimate matter” in contrast to much religious practice of viewing historical objects as sacred or at least deserving of reverence.

So it appears there may even be a divide within religious views. I suspect that divide may be even more pronounced in empirical-minded people in that those remains are the person, now dead.

That leads to Marvin’s assertion:

While it doesn't interfere with my religious beliefs, it does with other people's. So it really makes sense to stop and actually return the remains

With the generalization to any beliefs, religious or not. If it offends people, don’t display the remains.

 

[jet812]

So once a few generations pass and there's no chance anyone alive knew them, it's fine? We could dig up the remains of Lincoln and put them on display, and you'd have no problem with that?

You might be right, I'm just playing devil's advocate.

What’s on display is the fascinating process & practice of mummification. If they knew where Ramses was buried & it was in a traditional western manner, they wouldn’t have dug him up to display. The Lincoln analogy doesn’t work…

 

[td75]

An elegant nose

 

[BradStevens]

What’s on display is the fascinating process & practice of mummification. If they knew where Ramses was buried & it was in a traditional western manner, they wouldn’t have dug him up to display. The Lincoln analogy doesn’t work…

 

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

Ramses enslaved and killed to have his body preserved, so I take that as a waiver.

No waiver? No display.

No tickie - no laundry.

A former waiter used to be on display at a restaurant in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky. Very weird.