3 ms·

Why you you think it is an either-or situation? Can't we consider respect towards both?

• cm2187 4y ago
  If respect is owed to the dead then archeologists shouldn’t violate their grave. And where is the limitation? Would that apply to prehistoric burials?
  • Y-bar 4y ago
    Are you attempting to ask honest question here or are just taking a contrarian position against a view I do not hold? Are you unaware that it is fully possible to study a subject while also respecting it? It also seems to me that the questions you are asking are very black-and-white such as "And where is the limitation?" on an issue where there are many nuances.
    • cm2187 4y ago
      Despite how little we know of ancient rites, I am fairly confident that being exposed in a museum or transferred to the storage room of a warehouse is far from the respect expected by the deceased when the burial was arranged, no matter how much care you take. It’s a kind of value debate that has no definitive answer anyway. I am personally on the side that once dead, the corpse is just a stack of decaying meat which doesn’t command respect in itself. So it’s really a function of respect to the livings to whom the deceased meant something. And this wanes fairly quickly. Perhaps a century or two for a random quidam. Perhaps a few centuries for someone illustrious. But I am not religious either.
  • Tagbert 4y ago
    You can respect the dead even while inspecting their graves and grave goods if your motives are for enlightenment rather than avarice.