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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?
by 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 agoAre 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 agoDespite 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 agoYou can respect the dead even while inspecting their graves and grave goods if your motives are for enlightenment rather than avarice.