An Odd family Tradition

[critter crazy]

What I dont get, is if this darn Mummified abby ment so much to them, why wouldnt they get it DNA tested?? They had enough money to afford the coffin why not the DNA test?? seems pretty Kooky to me!!

[Twisterdog]

Well, yeah, personally I wouldn't want a mummy in my house! Yuck!

However ... despite the fact that it is a whole body, is there really a lot of difference in keeping it in the house and people who keep relatives' cremated ashes in urns, boxes, etc. in their houses? It's obviously less shocking to see a urn full of ashes than a mummified body ... but isn't it really sort of the same thing?

Mummies were "all the rage" in the early twentieth century, when most of the excavation of Egyptian tombs took place. Many well-to-do English folks had a mummy or two around the parlor as conversation pieces, and to show their connection with the archeological "in-crowd". I read somewhere that mummies of commoners were so, well ... common, that they were sometimes used as tinder in fireplaces. Disrespectful and sad but true.

It was probably just one of those things that generation after generation of this family just knew about and grew up with all their lives. Maybe things don't seem as weird to you if you and your entire family have known about them and accepted them for generations. I do, however, think keeping it in obvious open display and putting picture of it on the internet is in EXTREMELY bad taste.

[jennielynn1970]

What got me was the picture on the side with "Baby John" and a live baby. Thats freaking sick. Baby John looks eerily like Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (facial expression).

Who does this kind of crap?! It's one thing to have a stuffed fish or whatever, but a mummified baby?! How the heck do you explain that one to your latest date? "Oh, by the way, this is Baby John.... we keep him on the bureau for posterity."

[lizbud]

I wasn't clear on why the judge ruled as he did, as it seemed based on kinship? So, if the guy could positively prove it was his kin, he could keep on displaying the mummy like he was?

Don't most states have laws on the proper disposal of a human body?
This case could be a crime under abuse of a corpse.

[Suki Wingy]

Twisterdog summed up my feelings on this subject.

[crow_noir]

The judge has no right! burial is a religious thing. (Well, OK so maybe the judge does have some say so based on laws dealing with human remains.)

I'm so sick and tired of people trying to push their views on others.

Them keeping a mummified baby around is harming no one! (Though certainly it would be nice to test it and find out where it came from... to make sure it didn't come from the black market.)

Who's to say which death rite is proper and which isn't?!

I've actually always found it sick and wrong to hole someone in a cement culvert, but i don't go around picketing cemeteries or telling people that.

Don't you think that maybe your notions on these things have more to do with the culture in which you were raised? ("You" in general, no one in particular.)

(That's been pent up since even before the freeze dried pet thread.)