Archaeologist at Large: Research Interests

Human Remains

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:30:57 GMT

A Couple of interesting articles about the care of human remains

Give back their bones

The White House visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam on Friday was to take place just a few miles from the resting place of some of his countrymen.

When American GI's returned from the Vietnam War, some tried to smuggle home the skulls of Vietcong and North Vietnamese soldiers. The graffiti-covered skulls served as ashtrays, candle holders and trophies. Six skulls were seized by the Customs Service. They remain in limbo, relegated to a drawer on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

At a time when President George W. Bush plans to chastise the Vietnamese leader about human rights abuses, a question confronts his own administration: Should we return the Vietnamese trophy skulls?

More @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/22/opinion/edandrews.php

Doubling-up the dead

'Double-decker graves" was the recent headline over the story that Britain's Ministry of Justice would now permit managers of overcrowded cemeteries to inter the remains of dead people on top of those already in the ground. By digging up long-buried caskets, then deepening the holes, room would be created for the newly deceased. Their names could then be added to the already existing grave stones.

More @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/22/opinion/edcarroll.php

The original story in the British press can be found @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/06/ngrave106.xml

Exclusively English?

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:23:38 GMT

Exclusively English?

This very interesting piece from the IPPR website @ http://www.ippr.org/

by Rick Muir, Research Fellow.
OpenDemocracy - 02 June 2007

The debate over an English parliament in OurKingdom is further evidence that English national identity is on the rise. A recent ippr report found that whereas in 1992 over 60% of English people chose ‘British’ as the best way to describe themselves, this had fallen to below half by 2005 while those choosing ‘English’ as the best way to describe themselves rising from 31% to 40% over the same period.

This stronger sense of English national identity is clear in sport, with the now ubiquitous flag of St George. It is evident in politics with a growing clamour for new English institutional arrangements to match those in place in Scotland and Wales. But what are the social implications of the rise of English national identity? Public attitudes data shows that Englishness is associated with more ethnic exclusive attitudes than Britishness. Thus the 2001 General Household Survey found that whereas 52% of white respondents described themselves as English, just 11% of black and minority ethnic respondents did so, with 51% of them choosing British to describe themselves. This is in contrast to Scotland. There, black and ethnic minority respondents are much more likely to favour Scottishness over Britishness.

The data also shows that those who feel English are more likely to admit to racial prejudice than those who feel British. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with feeling English – it is a deeply felt national identity which deserves recognition like any other in the UK. But national identities can and should also be civic, pluralist and open to all citizens. Will advocating a civic Britishness as Gordon Brown and others want leave English national sentiment to take an increasingly ugly form? Billy Bragg and David Blunkett have argued that progressives need to start articulating a civic English identity open to all who live here. This is I think an increasingly important task. Two positive signs: the multi-ethnic and multi-racial make up of the English sports teams and their fans; the way Scottish national identity has become more civic and less ethnic as its popularity has grown. But there is a job of work to do if we are to prevent the rise of English national sentiment getting mixed up with a growth in all-too-familiar prejudices.

Rick Muir is a Research Fellow in ippr's Power & Democracy Team.

Our Relationship with the Animal World

Sat, 12 May 2007 11:48:49 GMT

A couple of stories interested me recently about our relationships with the animal world and our assumptions about their abilities and life

* Chimps found using spears:
Chimps in Senegal were reported making sharpened
sticks to hunt other, small primates.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070222_chimp-spears.htm

* Birds found to plan future meals:
Western scrub jays seem to be acquainted with the
concept of diet planning, scientists report.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070221_scrub-jay.htm