Ritual as Maori bones return home
crunch
"Richard Brewer, keeper of archaeology, National Museum Wales, said:
'After studying the remains and realising their significance to the
Maori community, Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) felt it was
appropriate to offer them back to their country of origin to lay their
souls to rest.'"
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Comments, please.
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David Christainsen
Kendall K Down
ups.com>
crunch <pchris...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "Richard Brewer, keeper of archaeology, National Museum Wales, said:
> 'After studying the remains and realising their significance to the
> Maori community, Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) felt it was
> appropriate to offer them back to their country of origin to lay their
> souls to rest.'"
Nutters.
Ken Down
--
================ ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGGINGS ===============
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Tom McDonald
> In message <4b3e0fea-4c41-46c8...@k17g2000yqh.googlegro
> ups.com>
> crunch <pchris...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> "Richard Brewer, keeper of archaeology, National Museum Wales, said:
>> 'After studying the remains and realising their significance to the
>> Maori community, Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) felt it was
>> appropriate to offer them back to their country of origin to lay their
>> souls to rest.'"
>
> Nutters.
Why? It seemed to me to be a reasonable and respectful thing for
the Welsh to do.
--
Tom
When Tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
And hear their death-knell ringing;
When friends rejoice, both far and near,
How can I keep from singing.
George
> Why? It seemed to me to be a reasonable and respectful thing for
> the Welsh to do.
It should be time for all the human remains held in the Museums of the
World to be returned to their countries and people of origin.
The time for such collections is well past
Peter Alaca
Recently such remains are also returned from The Netherlands
and from Sweden.
Kendall K Down
Tom McDonald <tmcdon...@charter.net> wrote:
>>> "Richard Brewer, keeper of archaeology, National Museum Wales, said:
>>> 'After studying the remains and realising their significance to the
>>> Maori community, Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) felt it was
>>> appropriate to offer them back to their country of origin to lay their
>>> souls to rest.'"
>> Nutters.
> Why? It seemed to me to be a reasonable and respectful thing for
> the Welsh to do.
If you read the report, you find that there is no evidence that these
bones are Maori, merely that they are Polynesian. I'm not even sure if
they know *where* they came from, whether New Zealand or some other
South Seas location.
It reminds me of the mad Orthodox Jews in Israel who insist that *any*
human bones found must be Jewish - God gave the land to the Jews, so
that proves it. Any bones found are handed over to these nutters, so
we have the ridiculous picture of black-coated fanatics, side-curls
swinging as they sing Kaddish over some low-browed Neolithic remains.
benl...@ihug.co.nz
wrote:
> In message <hSsMm.17309$cd7.6...@newsfe04.iad>
> Tom McDonald <tmcdonald2...@charter.net> wrote:
>
> >>> "Richard Brewer, keeper of archaeology, National Museum Wales, said:
> >>> 'After studying the remains and realising their significance to the
> >>> Maori community, Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) felt it was
> >>> appropriate to offer them back to their country of origin to lay their
> >>> souls to rest.'"
> >> Nutters.
> > Why? It seemed to me to be a reasonable and respectful thing for
> > the Welsh to do.
>
> If you read the report, you find that there is no evidence that these
> bones are Maori, merely that they are Polynesian. I'm not even sure if
> they know *where* they came from, whether New Zealand or some other
> South Seas location.
Not really. From the same story:
"Research has shown that the remains were originally obtained from
Ahuahu, or Great Mercury Island, which is the largest in the Mercury
Islands group, located off the north-east coast of New Zealand's North
Island."
[Geographical clarification: These islands are a few km offshore, not
way out in the Pacific somewhere, definitely part of NZ, and anybody
living on them would be ancestral Maori.]
Admittedly the Welsh museum's collections do not appear to be in the
best of order, but somebody apparently has evidence linking the bones
specifically to NZ.
> It reminds me of the mad Orthodox Jews in Israel who insist that *any*
> human bones found must be Jewish - God gave the land to the Jews, so
> that proves it. Any bones found are handed over to these nutters, so
> we have the ridiculous picture of black-coated fanatics, side-curls
> swinging as they sing Kaddish over some low-browed Neolithic remains.
>
Not at all similar. This kind of repatriation has been going on for
quite a while now, and events like this are somewhat commonplace in
NZ. In almost all cases the documentation is quite clear, that the
remains (bones, some looted from historic cemeteries, and tattooed
heads, traded as exotic novelties in the 19th century) do come from
NZ, and have served any scientific purpose they might once have had.
Ross Clark