Give us back our bones, pagans tell museums

moss Feb 9, 2007 16:18:43

Interesting article in the Guardian............

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2006202,00.html

As the professor says, "We think that there is an intellectual argument for the pagans to be taken seriously,"

Do the scientists have, for instance, any right to speak for the bones themselves.

Hob Feb 9, 2007 16:30:03

Replying to moss

It's a odd one this.

Despite not being a Paganist, I have a gut feeling that bones shouldn't be gawked at by museum visitors, but the research thing, well, I'm not so sure how I feel about that.

Part of me thinks of those disarticulated bones in WKLB and how they were possibly shunted about back then, in some kind of ritualistic manner. The stuff scientists do isn't totally different. It's still really just faffing about with bones to do magic. Science involves lots of ritual too. You could look at it as another way of honouring the bones of the ancestors.

Pete G Feb 9, 2007 17:09:18

Replying to moss

"A miserable band of suspended resuscitators belonging to a fringe Order of an allegedly degenerate dead religion"
??

Pete G Feb 9, 2007 17:10:22

Replying to moss

did you enjoy your stay?
http://www.aveburylodge.co.uk/Photos/SilburySnowman.jpg

fitzcoraldo Feb 9, 2007 20:32:15

Replying to moss

I have problems with this issue and I sway between the archeo-centric view, the quest for knowlege of the past versus the treatment of sites that were sacred to our ancestors.
It's easy to accuse people of being fake or wooly but surely most of us here would like to think of ourselves as people who are perhaps on a quest for knowlege of our culture and history in an attempt to understand who we are and how we got here and how we relate to the rest of mankind.
It's a difficult subject however I think it does no one any harm to periodically stop and question their motives.
With modern recording techniques, is it really necessary to keep the remains of thousands of our ancestors in dusty museum drawers. Isn't it time we started returning some of these people back to where they came from whether it be Australia or Aberdeenshire.

This is an extract from an article printed last week in my local town magazine. It concerns a visiting Australian Aboriginal artist.
"We took him to see some ancient burial mounds on the North York Moors and when he saw that they had been excavated he shed tears of sorrow and anger. He simply couldn't understand why anyone would desecrate a grave, no matter how many thousands of years it had been there."

nigelswift Feb 16, 2007 16:55:59

Replying to moss

Just picked this up from elsewhere. Worth sharing I reckon...

We could set up our own 'genuine' ancient religion (just as valid).
And here's the clever bit...our ancestors were in favour of scientific study.
Checkmate