Any comments from curators at the Smithsonian or from U. Penn's archaeology museum? I'm sure this issue is not as cut-and-dried (bad metaphor) as Mr. Prouty suggests. Wendy Botting Asst. Curator, College of Architecture, Art & Planning Cornell University ******************************************************** In message Wed, 17 Aug 1994 07:40:40 -0700, Guy Prouty <[log in to unmask]> writes: > Even though this response does not directly answer your question, I > would like to address an important and sensitive issue: displaying human > remains. As an archaeologist here is Oregon, we are required by law and > by Native American requests to treat all burials that we encounter with > care and respect. In no way would we put on display any burials in our > museums, whether Native American, Egyptian, Peruvian, Chinese, or anybody > else. Doing so is not only disrespectful but unethical in most minds of > archaeologists and museum specialists here in the USA. How is this issue > viewed in Australia? Has there been any serious discussion about this? I > believe that one country displaying human remains and another unwilling > to do so is a double standard and not good for the anthropology field as a > whole. I appreciate your comments. Thank you very much, Guy Prouty, > Oregon State Museum of Anthropology. > > On Wed, 17 Aug 1994, Geoff Holden wrote: > > >> We are contemplating a display for 1996 which will hopefully include >> some mummies (Egyptian, Peruvian and possibly Chinese). The exhibition >> area concerned has air conditioning which could only be described as >> medium quality - and it would cost much too much to upgrade it to a >> highest quality level. Sooooo - we are wondering if it is practical to >> put the mummies in a very large display case which IS properly >> controlled. But I wonder if there is a possibility of misting on the >> glass, either on the outside surface or the inside. Would double >> glazing help? >> Has anyone any experience in this area? We would welcome comments, >> experiences and even "but surely you realize that"s. >> >> Geoff Holden >> Curator of Communications and some very odd projects indeed >> Scienceworks >> Museum of Victoria >> Australia >> >> >