Should we use ancestral remains in research or should they all be reburied?
All Druids feel a deep connection to their ancestors, whether these ancestors be of our blood, tradition or land. But how should we deal most honourably with their physical remains? Below are some Druidic opinions, if you have an opinion please send it to the ethcial pages coordinator.
Cathi Yarrow : Oh this is a difficult one. I'm fascinated by what we find out about our ancestors. But I also feel some revulsion at our collective compulsion to shine a light, poke a tool, pull things apart that were laid in the dark earth with reverence and honour for that darkness.If they are to be used for research then I think that research must be well justified in terms of the likelihood of important new discoveries about our ancestors that can help us understand them better, and thus communicate with them better. If there is no such justification, then leave the remains to be. If they have been taken out for research, then rebury them, definitely, with prayers and thanks.
Emma Restall Orr : It is that key word 'use' is the problem here. Druidry teaches me that those who have lived before us are still a part of our tribe. When someone dies, they don't immediately and automatically lose their place in the tribe. They retain their rights - to be held with dignity and loyalty, respected and remembered, and allowed to be as they would wish to be. The ethics of honour mean that we don't 'use' each other. We should not use the dead.
Phil Ryder : Regarding 'Ancestral Remains' my thoughts are that you can't generalise and that each case should be considered individually. Many of the remains kept in museums serve no useful purpose and there is a good case for reburial. Lindow Man on the other hand has become a community icon and there is a case for him continuing to help community identity and relations. Who makes the decision?
AntonyB : I don't have a problem with them being used in research as long as this is done respectfully. I think we have to consider how we would like our own bodies to be dealt with, if say after one hundred years, some archaeologist was investigating 21st century burial customs. As long as they were treated respectfully, I would not mind, even if they were on display to educate, rather than titillate, the public. I am less happy with the pillaging of foreign sites of bones that in the past have been used more for moneymaking and public voyeurism than education. In Jersey, for example, in 1835, John Gosset returned from Thebes with a mummy which he put on display in his private museum in Jersey, and that kind of action makes me very uneasy. In fact, things got worse, because when the museum closed in 1950, the mummy ended being burnt to ashes locally.
