While remains like European bog bodies and mummies from Egypt or South America often find themselves on public display in a museum after their scientific investigation, other cases like that of the Lake Mungo Man or the Kennewick Man were reburied following public pressure by Indigenous Rights groups, who claim custody of the remains and argue that a scientific investigation let alone public display disturb the peace of the dead.
What's your stance on this? I would expect most people see greater value in potential scientific findings rather than the feelings of people who may or may not be the descendants of the ancient humans, but if you go in favor of the scientists, where do you draw the line - would it be (to take an extreme example) be okay to open the vault of old George Washington and put his remains in a glass box for everyone to see?
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[–] Uncle420 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
If there's no provable living relatives, it should belong to the state and curated by archeologists and historians. If there are living relatives, the decicion should be up to them. And I'm talking direct decendents up to a reasonable number of generations.
When there's no archeological, scientific or culturar benefit of doing so or goes against national ethos.
I don't see how that would fall in my categories, but I would say it's reasonable to open his grave to examine his biters as his dentures have been a matter of historical conflict. But it would break social taboos due to his position and thus be against nationalistic will.