Breaking News: Pagan groups are big crybabies, no better than Xtian Fundies

[Cain]

I know, it's the Mail, but there is a Guardian article as well

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323443/Museum-displays-human-remains-covered-fear-offending-pagans.html

Museums are hiding away mummies and human remains for fear of offending pagans and other minority groups, it has been revealed.

They are putting up warning signs, closing previously opened coffins and displaying exhibits in darkened cases.

This is despite the fact that such displays are among the most popular attractions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/oct/25/ancient-remains-bone-of-contention

In a book published yesterday, Tiffany Jenkins, a sociologist, highlighted how uneasy museums are becoming when it comes to displaying human remains. Jenkins gave examples including the Museum of London, which removed bones showing the effects of rickets, and Manchester University Museum, which took the head of an iron-age human, Worsley Man, off display; in 2008, it briefly covered its mummies with sheets.

Jenkins claims that museums are bowing to pressure from organisations such as the pagan group Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD). HAD is not a protest organisation, says its founder, Emma Restall Orr, adding that it doesn't have a blanket policy of wanting all human remains in museums to be reburied. "No one 'owns' human remains," she says. "What we are calling for is a consultation so that local people, pagans, historical societies, scientists, archeologists, everybody gets to say what they think is the best thing to do. That may be to redisplay it with more respect so the personhood is retained."

There is a difference, she says, between a whole skeleton or a preserved body and fragments. "You may have a thigh bone or parts of a skull that are displayed as if they are no more human than a shard of pottery."

Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, which has a code of practice for the display of human remains, is aware of the sensitivities but doesn't believe museums are "in full retreat". "Museums are a history of humankind," he says, "and humans play a central part of it."

[Doktor Howl]

Okay, if "local Pagans" get a say, then "local Christians" and "local Muslims" and even "local Discordians do, too.

Honoring the Ancient Dead.  HAD.  As in, "You've been HAD".

[Cain]

I am offended at the offence and demand it be banned.

[Doktor Howl]

I am offended at the offence and demand it be banned.

This has to be a put on.

I mean, since when has the London museum caved in to fat smelly pagans?

[Cain]

They shouldn't take this shit lying down.  They have scalpels, you know.  And excellent anatomy knowledge.  Not suggesting anything, just saying...

[Richter]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

[Doktor Howl]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

They're the same people, I think.  It's only offensive if a museum does it.

[Richter]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

They're the same people, I think.  It's only offensive if a museum does it.

R, , thinks this bullshit earns a skullkicking.

[Doktor Howl]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

They're the same people, I think.  It's only offensive if a museum does it.

R, , thinks this bullshit earns a skullkicking.

Sure.  If a Pagan does it, he's "getting in touch with his (non-existent) heritage".

If a museum does it, it's Whitey getting on a brother.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

They're the same people, I think.  It's only offensive if a museum does it.

R, , thinks this bullshit earns a skullkicking.

Sure.  If a Pagan does it, he's "getting in touch with his (non-existent) heritage".

If a museum does it, it's Whitey getting on a brother.

I can kinda see their point, but it would be less ridiculous if it wasn't from a specifically Pagan perspective, and more from a "We wouldn't want people digging us up 3000 years from now" perspective.

Twid,
Wants his corpse to stay put

[Doktor Howl]

I'm thinking they need to be shut in a room with the folks stealing and selling human remains at your local gem show.

They're the same people, I think.  It's only offensive if a museum does it.

R, , thinks this bullshit earns a skullkicking.

Sure.  If a Pagan does it, he's "getting in touch with his (non-existent) heritage".

If a museum does it, it's Whitey getting on a brother.

I can kinda see their point, but it would be less ridiculous if it wasn't from a specifically Pagan perspective, and more from a "We wouldn't want people digging us up 3000 years from now" perspective.

Twid,
Wants his corpse to stay put

I'm getting hacked up for bits, cremated, and put into some iron, to be made into a wrench.

But first, I'm having an arm removed, and nobody in my will inherits unless they eat a bit of that arm.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What did I miss here? Why the fuck do pagans even have the vote, let alone anyone paying any attention to them?