pigeons

[lobelia321]

Today I took t'boys to London. We fed pigeons at Trafalgar Square and then went to the British Museum. Enduring various bouts of pre-pubescence, we nevertheless managed to see the fabled Assyrian reliefs of King Assurbanipal hunting lions, the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon (t'sons sketched a centaur fighting a lapith), Egyptian sarcophagi and mummies and the Islamic section (which I dragged them to, all part of my new teaching interests thanks to all of you lot! -- I saw a lovely Persian manuscript there, not image-googleable, showing an all-male picnic, complete with young boy nestling up to older man).

I find mummies ethically highly problematic. I don't think it's right to be ogling dead people in a museum. I kept thinking, imagine this is my daughter or mother, and I gave her a magnificent burial, had her mummified using all the rituals, sent her on her way in a ritual and in the context of a deep belief system, hidden her safely away in a never-to-be-opened tomb -- and now she's lying in a glass case in some stone building in England, goggled at by bored tourists with camcorders. I wouldn't like it. It is very disrespectful and not right. I know that there has been an issue over this with, e.g., native American corpses being kept in museums. Some of those had to be taken out and reburied. But the ancient Egyptians have no modern group to lobby for them. Still, it's an issue of humanity and human-ness.

I'm not sure whom I've told about this online but we are still traumatised after our visit last week to the private school we had been contemplating for t'prepubescent one. The headmaster was an absolute pig, subjected t'ppb one to an unnecessary and humiliating impromptu interview, has no idea how to deal with children, has no vision of what education means beyond grade-A GCSEs, and embodied the worst of the Anglo-Saxon private-school-class system.

Heh. badgermonkey would perhaps say, 'I told you so'. Still, though, we're still putting him in for the exams because he's all geared up for it now. The sad thing is he liked the headmaster: he hasn't got the nouse to see that he was being dissed. But I saw it. At first, I just felt disturbed, and later I felt outraged: how dare anyone do this to MY SON?

This was, of course, before he started driving me up the wall with ppb shenanigans on today's trip. But we're on a mission now: he's going to get culture and knowledge stuffed into him, whether he wants it or not.

But god, it's going to turn me into a wreck. Hello, Kevin!!! (possibly only intelligible to my fellow UK-dwellers)

Comments

[lazulus]

I am in complete agreement re: mummies. Just one reason why I find it incredibly hard to go into the Egyptian Gelleries at the BM.

As to the Headmaster of the school, sadly in his position he undoubtedly thinks he can do and say what he damn well pleases. Am sorry it was like that, it is very harsh when you put your hopes on something and find that it isn't as you might have hoped.

Is t'ppb showing more signs of impending teenagerishness? If so, my thoughts are -- as always -- with you and your family.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

T'ppb is impossible. Rationally, I know that he can't help it and that he's sort of trapped in this awful persona and in this body that's growing too fast but there are times when I just want to yell or run away really fast.

As to the headmaster: it was awful but I'm thinking, better to know before we've shelled out 10,000 a year than after.

[bunnysquee.livejournal.com]

there was a lot of controversy a while back when the tombs of chinese emperors were excavated and stolen by thieves and displayed around the world. fortunately, the chinese government has got most of it back, either by request or paying very large amounts of money when they came up for auction, and put them back. i'm not sure if tourists can visit the tombs, but it least they are back there.

i'm totally with you on the public display of egyptian mummies. i think it's wrong.

i think it's awesome that you and your family do the cultural excursion thing. i used to be all gung ho about it but now i'm too lazy to go gawk at the modigliani exhibit which is in toronto at the moment. i don't know what it is.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Interesting about the Chinese emperors.

Well, we go on such rare cultural outings. I jsut decided to in the wake of horror experience with the Demon Headmaster.

I don't like Modigliani so I probably wouldn't go, either.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm in almost total agreement about the mummies. Except, if there is one, I HAVE to look at it. For a long time. I've always thought of it as paying my respects rather than ogling, but maybe that's just a stupid justification. It fills me with both awe and sorrow that I'm looking at something that once was a person and is now on display in a glass case somewhere. I wouldn't mind if it were me, but obviously these people went to a great deal of trouble to make sure they were interred properly.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I don't think of it as being me but as being someone I love. Could you imagine subjecting your husband / brother / mother to such oglings? It's the people who survive who go to the trouble of burial rites, and it's a general responsibility and duty of all humans to pay respect to the dead. Okay, there are worse things than ogling mummies, I know that but still, it makes me feel wrong. I know what you mean about the not being able to stop and stare for a long time but that's also part of what turns a dead person into an object of perverse fascination, isn't it?

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I totally get what you mean. I'd have serious objections if it were someone I cared about, but if someone wanted to put my body or skeleton on display for future generations to marvel at (hee) I wouldn't have a problem with that.

the need to stare is just like staring at a train wreck even if you really don't want to see it. It's awful but compelling at the same time.

My problem is a bit compounded in that I'm a bit Shinto (I don't know if you can really be a bit, and I didn't know until about 7 years ago when I first went to Japan that that's what it was I'd been doing all this time). So I actually get somewhat religious feelings when I see very old remains, or even an old grave- it doesn't take much. Most recently, I sobbed loudly at the grave of Chief Jospeh of the Nez Perce, and left all kinds of talismans there - a scarf, a beaded bracelet, even a little note- people standing around me thought I was a descendant of his! No, sorry, just overly sentimental!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

What is it that Shinto does??

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

It's a very old form of Animism, native to Japan long before Buddhism took hold. Most Japanese who practice it, practice it in conjunction with Buddhism, because they are rather complementary to each other.

Like other forms of Animism, it holds that there are spirits in everything; rocks, trees, and all animals, although they hold the fox in especially high regard. In addition, great respect for one's ancestors is called for. Westerners have often derisively referred to Shinto as "ancestor-worship," but at least in modern times, it doesn't go nearly as far as that. It really has more to do with respect for those who have gone before and the realization that their spirits are still present in some form. Every house we stayed in in Japan had a tiny Shinto shrine in the main living area with old pictures of Grandma and Grandpa and so on. No one prays to them, but it's customary to give them a little bow when passing. There's a very good, detailed explanation of Shinto in Liam Hearn's "Secrets of an Unfamiliar Japan."

I've always been an animist, to some degree- probably the tree-loving German blood coursing through my veins :-)- but it hit me especially hard in Japan. Maybe it's just the result of an overactive imagination, but there were places and things that felt strangely real and present. One that particularly struck me was the great shrine in Shimonoseki commemorating the Battle of Kanmon Strait. This is where Honshu (middle island) meets Kyushu (bottom island) and a great naval battle was fought there in the 1400's. The fight was for the Shogunate of Japan between the ruling Taira clan and the increasingly strong Minamoto clan. The Taira fought to the death of course, and when all was lost, the grandmother of the baby emperor took him in her arms and jumped overboard, killing both of them.

Even though the Taira were utterly defeated, the Minamoto always held their memories in high esteem and built the shrine there as a memorial to them. Now here's the freaky part. Native only to that specific place in the world is a tiny crab that has what looks like a samurai face on its back. Each one is unique, and they really do look like little armoured samurai heads, grinning, grimacing, making all kinds of faces. The Japanese would say that naturally, the spirits of the dead Taira warriors are made manifest again in the form of these crabs and actually named them "Taira-crabs."

I had a serious case of shivers down my spine in that place, in broad daylight, in summer heat, surrounded by noisy tourists, and with massive barges traversing the strait. It was not the kind of place in which I would normally get that feeling. But like I said, I am subject to fits of overactive imagination, and I so get off on this kind of stuff, that I very possibly just freaked myself out!

So anyway- sorry for the long story, but the crabs have ever since always represented Shinto to me.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This is all very interesting, thank you. The crabs are strange and suggestive.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Liam Hearn's "Secrets of an Unfamiliar Japan."


Do you mean Lian Hearn, the woman who wrote those slashy Tales of the Taira Clan novels??

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

No, I don't. They are actually two separate people! When I first got "Across the Nightingale Floor" (which I haven't yet read), I thought that crusty old Liam (I think he's dead by now) was branching out into fiction. Then I saw that it was Lian. I do wonder if maybe she's his daughter. If that's even her real name. It would make some kind of sense.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

They are actually two separate people!
omg, they *are*??

Lian Hearn is a pseudonym. I looked up her real name once but have forgotten it.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Wow, maybe she did it to lure unsuspecting Japanophiles into reading about boylove! Go her!! :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Gillian Rubenstein, Australian award-winning children's book author, age 35.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Ack, it's going to make me register. I'll just google her. I always wonder how any person has time to write books under more than one name. Although, I suppose you do!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*falls off chair* Yeah, I'm a multi-pseudonymed author... What do you mean 'register'? I can just *see* that page...??

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm on the wrong continent? When I click the link, I get a page asking for all of my info.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Does this work?

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/08/1025667106497.html

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, that worked! Interesting article. If you ever go to Japan, try to take a trip to the Iga prefecture (day-trip from Osaka or Kyoto) and visit the Ninja house. It's got a lot of cool ninja features, including a nightingale floor. We have a photo of my husband squeaking it and grinning!

[novanumbernine.livejournal.com]

I find mummies ethically highly problematic.

oh yes, i totally agree. maybe it would be just about acceptable if they were presented in a more respectful setting, but i don't like the fact that a dead person who was, as you say, loved and respected in life has been simply shoved in a glass case to be stared at.

n.x :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

yes

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I've always worried about dead people in museums. In Ipswich Museum there are or at least were some skeletons in little mocked-up burial mounds with glass windows you could look through. They always seemed terribly exposed and vulnerable. I remember seeing the mummies in the British Museum when I was a child and wondering why you weren't allowed to stay buried or entombed or whatever if you happened to have died a long time ago. What made very very old dead people different? I ended up writing about the Ipswich skeletons in my novel wot I didn't write.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

In Ipswich, even??!

What made very very old dead people different?
Exactly!!

I ended up writing about the Ipswich skeletons in my novel wot I didn't write.
Whoa. Double whoa.