MAx Evans wrote:
 
Hasn't anyone heard of NAGPRA (the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act)?  Most culturals consider the disposition of the
remains of their dead to be special.  For museums
to ignore these values by curating (or worse,
displaying) human remains is offensive.
 
 
To which I reply:
 
My mind drifts back
to my breakfast this morning (it seems so long ago)
and how I watched one of the morning news programs as I munched rice
krispies with my son.  Such an appropriate breakfast story was being
played about the archealogists who are digging up human remains at
Jamestown.  Toursits and newsmen gathered around the open grave as the
ghouls with clipboards dusted off the bones, and I heard no one crying
out about disturbing cultural remains, etc.  I guess it is all depends on
who is being dug up: europeans or natives, and how long ago they bit the
dust.
 
I never researched my family history; you'd think that someone in our
line of work should be required to do genealogy.  Supposing I did, and
supposing I discovered that great great (add as many as you want) grandpa
Mortimer was with Captain John Smith's group and died of some hideous
disease.  Would these fellows busily excavating in front of the cameras
care much for my digestion?
 
Kim Allen Scott
Special Collections Librarian
MSU-Bozeman Libraries
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT  59717
406-994-5297
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