I remember enjoying the mummies at the Southwest
Museum in Los Angeles, so this dialogue is something
to which I can relate.
However, I struggle on this one knowing what I now
know as an adult, and was amazed to see a mummy just
two weeks ago at the Natural History Museum, also in
Los Angeles.
Mummies are being repatriated regularly to their
native peoples for appropriate burial/handling. What
we are so intrigued by gives such alarm and so
disturbs certain segments of the population from which
the mummies derive, so I guess, perhaps, one of
us--without trying to be the skunk at the
picnic--needs to remember to be sensitive about this
topic.
I guess it would be a question of if it were in your
ancestral heritage or lineage. Would you want your
great-great-great-great-a thousand times
great-relative hanging out in that condition for the
world to see?
Course, there were probably days, when I was married I
would have been happy to have offered my ex-husband up
for mummy status (mostly because it was a miracle I
didn't do an "off with his head" thing while married),
but then that's another story.
--- Debora Shipman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> The other is at the Witte Museum in Austin, where
> you can smell the mummies
> hand. Those of involved in the museum seminar were
> driven to great
> discussions on this one.
>
> I am very glad you and your colleagues enjoyed our
> exhibit Mummies!
> Unwrapping the Past, however, the Witte Museum is
> actually located in San
> Antonio, not Austin.
>
> The curatorial offices are located right next to the
> Mummy exhibit and all
> day long I hear the delighted shouts of children
> (and a few adults) "Yuck,
> smell that hand!" Ironically, the hand lost its
> smell a long time ago.
> Funny the way everyone convinces each other how
> stinky it is.
>
> In addition, the Witte currently has the first
> gallery of a multi-gallery
> exhibit open titled Stories From the Attic:
> Treasures from San Antonio's
> History. This exhibit highlights rare, unusual, and
> often unseen parts of
> our collection, and includes the interesting stories
> behind some of our
> collection pieces. We have two more galleries to
> go, and believe me, lots
> of interesting things to display (the museum was
> founded in1926!).
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------
> Deborah Shipman
> Curatorial Assistant
> Witte Museum
> [log in to unmask]
>
=====
Indigo Nights
[log in to unmask]
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