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Semantically I find it a bit funny we call the thieves "grave robbers". If they're stealing from someone's grave, isn't the current excavation robbing someone's
by varenc 5y ago
Semantically I find it a bit funny we call the thieves "grave robbers". If they're stealing from someone's grave, isn't the current excavation robbing someone's grave too?
But of course, the current excavation isn't theft because they have approval from the local government who owns this site. The thieves aren't really "grave robbers" because they're not robbing from someone's grave, they're robbing from a publicly owned resource. So they're really "Archaeological Park of Pompeii robbers".
- Retric 5y agoPompeii is a mass grave due to the eruption that killed and buried most of the inhabitants.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- chana_masala 5y agoThat's not the point
- Retric 5y agoWhy not? It’s a grave and they robbed it. Suggesting archeologists on the other hand are robbing the grave implies they both don’t own it and the archeologists are taking ownership of whatever is removed. The first might apply but the second doesn’t.
- varenc 5y agoThe semantic point I was trying to make is that calling anyone a "grave robber" can be reasonably interpreted to imply the victim of the theft is those whose grave it is. Namely the dead. They're dead, so they certainly aren't consenting to the archeologists' activity either. But I of course agree the archeologists aren't robbers. But that's because we as a society don't see the artefacts as belonging to the dead, as the phrase "grave robbers" can imply, rather they belong to the current living people and our institutions. So the original thieves aren't robbing from the dead, they're robbing from the people. That said, there's something extra bad about robbing from the cultural heritage of the people AND desecrating the graves of the dead in the process. I would presume the archeologists would treat the area and the remains of people which much more respect. I really don't think the term "grave robber" is wrong, I just found it semantically interesting. Maybe another term could be "grave desecrating antiquity thieves"
- ericmay 5y agoPersonal profit angle versus preservation. Although maybe the latter isn’t perfect but the intentions are there.
- seibelj 5y agoIt’s the same reason an African general is a “warlord”. You can reframe anything in a few choice words.