Re: oldest American skull found!

From: pwilson (pwilson78_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/11/04 

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 20:52:34 -0400

Erik A. Mattila emattila@oco.net wrote:
>pwilson wrote:
>> Erik A. Mattila emattila@oco.net wrote:
>>
>>>Yes, and I get the creeps looking at Egyptian mummies too. It's
>>>probably the "creeps" because of my own internal conflict - on the
>>>one hand it fascinating (and probably perverse) but on the other hand
>>>the idea that the "long sleep" has been violated. It's like seeing
>>>animals working out their angst in a zoo cage - little behaviors that
>>>only serve to make incarceration bearable.
>>
>> So you equate the plight of caged animals with the 'plight' of
>>mummies on display in a museum?
>>
>> That's bizzare. And kind of demented.
>
>But you're not making the connection, wilson.

Then communicate your thoughts more clearly.

>It's "display." What are zoos? Recreation designed to entertain folks
>by plucking animals out of the context of their lives for the purpose of
>exhibition. In other words, it's a spectacle, and it is impoverished
>and shallow, as spectacles regularly are.

Some are, others are grand and inspiring. It depends on your
perspective. I think zoos belong in the former category and I am opposed
to them. I think wildlife parks are more appropriate.

>Didn't Alfred North Whitehead warn us against this a century or so >ago?

I don't know what he warned against that's pertinent to this debate. And
further, I don't see what any of this has to do with the reverence we
accord to mummies by respectfully displaying them in the British Museum.
Or how any of that compares to keeping animals in a zoo.

I personally don't get anything out of looking at dried-up human flesh in
a glass case. I find it boring. My preference would be to have the
mummies available for scientific research - and interred in a safe
conservatory in the interim. But I am not ethically opposed to having
mummies on display in a museum as an alternative.
 

Relevant Pages

  • Re: oldest American skull found!
    ... >by plucking animals out of the context of their lives for the purpose of ... accord to mummies by respectfully displaying them in the British Museum. ... mummies on display in a museum as an alternative. ...
    (sci.anthropology)
  • Re: oldest American skull found!
    ... >by plucking animals out of the context of their lives for the purpose of ... accord to mummies by respectfully displaying them in the British Museum. ... mummies on display in a museum as an alternative. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
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