It is unfortunate that this country has become such a politial bed for
activist and personal interest groups that we now witch-hunt anything that
is not so generalized and sanitized that it actually has no informational
value. The discussion of display or not is yet again the vicious circle of
who is asking, who is interpreting, and who deserves to interpret. The
bottom line is that we all are loosing out: the scientists to be able to
do any type of research that may be miss-interpreted or inferred as
racist, sexist, biggotist, eugenitist, un-religious, over-religious, etc.
ad nauseam. The museums, universities and institutions are confined and
restricted to non-informational levels and ultimately, the students and
the general society become produces of no information, comparisons, the
lack or (shudder the discussion of biological and social differences)
relization that people, cultures and societies differ in amazing, facinating
and sometimes weird ways.
     By hiding behind all these pretenses, we are destroying scientific
inquiry in all areas, but especially in skeletal biology, human variation,
and anthropology as a whole. We ahve now reduced our work to the stuff that
is done behind closed doors, don't let anyone see, we might offend one
person in the whole world. The work becomes secretive, and the public begin
to question the validity and the practices because they don't understand,
they are not informed and yet they are facinated by publications of mummies
found in the Italian Alps, in Siberia, in Egypt, about excavations, about
the past cultures. What do we supply them with in the way of scientific
study and interpretation. These people are getting the sound/video bite
30 second sensationalized (but yet sanitized) news blips from 'Current
Affair' or 'World Weekly News'.
    Maybe we all should take a step back, a deep breath, and quit the "book
burning" mentality that is rampant in the politial realm and focus on the
more detremental facts concerning the demise of our science and scientific
research as whole if we continue in this same vein.