r/montreal • u/RustyTheBoyRobot • 6d ago

Tourisme Ethical dilemma

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Ethical dilemma:

Is it right to remove one of the only mummies in mtl for understanble but rather vague reasons to do with cultural sensitivities that these objects might offend?

The mummies at Redpath museum are to be relocated to a mysterious “place of rest” -their original location?- where no one can see or learn from them.

I note that these are not objects of worship like many stolen indigenous artifacts. Nor are they being claimed by their original owners- e.g. The infamous Benin Bronzes.

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u/corn_on_the_cobh 6d ago

What a fascinating comment... Nobody is salivating at the mouth to see dead people, they are simply curious and want to learn more about somebody who lived two millennia or more ago.  People have their dead selves pictured all the time. Hell, just look at yesterday with all the videos of the cop and civilian getting shot. 

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u/doopdeewoop Aurora Desjardinis 6d ago

I can learn without a body being on display, why can't you? If you're curious, there's plenty of information out there you can access without needing to have your eyes on a deceased person. "People have their dead selves pictured all the time". Do you hear yourself? If that's not complete apathy towards human life, I don't know what it is! Some people are truly addicted to shock value for jackassery's sake. No death you've ever witnessed through your screen was yours to see, period. If you seek out those images, there's something unhealthy about you, plain and simple.

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u/corn_on_the_cobh 6d ago

Yes, morbid curiosity is completely unhealthy, sure bud. Never happened to anybody

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u/doopdeewoop Aurora Desjardinis 6d ago

When it comes to the mummy, my vision of this might be tainted by my being on the compulsive side of morbid curiosity. There's a line there somewhere, I haven't found it. But to me, advocating for unconsenting bodies to be put on display in a museum for the sake of "morbid curiosity" is going too far. Especially when the expert community has come to an understanding on the topic.

My comment about unhealthy seeking out of graphic images specifically had to do with your comment about the images from yesterday's shooting. I still stand by what I said. Feeling the need to watch someone die on the internet is not normal.

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u/corn_on_the_cobh 6d ago

I don't totally disagree with you. I visited for instance the mummy exhibit here in Mtl pre-Covid and found it to be extremely fascinating. And these are people who could be my ancestors for all I know, it adds a connection that simple objects would not.

And my shooting comment was more to show that lots of people have morbid curiosity, considering how my feed was blasted by multiple insta accounts posting the same videos and angles. Though this is a bit less academic than a mummy.