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Mummies have been crucial parts of many museums for many years. Mummy exhibits ranged from closed tombs to wrapped mummies to partially visible mummies to fully exposed mummies. However, in recent years many debates have sprung up about whether or not these mummy displays are ethical. Here, two main sides to the debate will be explored.
mummy displays are not ethical; displaying mummies dehumanizes them, and the actual bodies should not be shown in museum exhibits
Actually displaying the mummies are not an issue, rather mummy displays have the potential to be educational and can provide visitors with enriching personal experiences with the ancient dead.
Debates against displaying mummies have only surfaced in recent years, and many people today still see no issues in displaying these mummies. However, critics of mummy displays still put up a good fight over the issues. Here, a few arguments are presented against the displaying of mummies in museums.
First and foremost, the dead and their wishes should be respected. Egyptians prepared for their dead to be buried, and as a result, it’s reasonable to say that Egyptian mummies should not have been dug up and hauled into museums for the public to see. But since it is not likely that all mummies will be re-buried, the least museums could do is keep the mummies covered and in their coffins rather than putting these bodies on full display.
In addition, the question of what if it was you could also be asked. If you or a family member or friend decided to be buried after death but were instead dug up and put in a museum for everyone to see, would you think that was ok?
Another argument against mummy displays is that museum mummy displays are a continuation of a history of the misuse of mummies. Starting as early as the 16th century, mummies became popular in the West as a form of medicine and paint. Later on, in the 19th century, “mummy parties” developed as the public unwrapping of mummies became popular. Public unrolling of mummies became such a popular form of entertainment that one man, Thomas Pettigrew, became especially famous for them. However, it seems that modern museum mummy displays have replaced public mummy unwrappings. Most people that go to museums go for entertainment and interest, and displaying the bodies of the ancient dead seems to satisfy the people’s desire for entertainment. Mummies had been commercial products or forms of entertainment for centuries, and it seems that the trend is continuing with mummy displays. Misusing mummies for entertainment should have been a piece of history, not an ongoing issue.
One more argument against mummy displays is that displaying the bodies is not completely necessary. The bodies themselves do not provide any information to those with no prior knowledge of them. The mummies need text or labels accompanying them to truly understand them and to learn something about them. Following this argument, using replicas or keeping the coffins closed would not negatively affect the exhibits. In addition, many museum visitors often ask whether the mummies are real or not, and if replicas of the mummies are used, the visual impact of the exhibit would be the same as if real human remains were used. If the public often confuses the real with the replicas, would there really be a difference if replicas were used instead of the real mummies?
Dispite some criticisms of mummy exhibits, many museum visitors themselves are supportive of these displays. Some also argue the issue regarding mummy displays should not be focused on the actual mummies, but rather on the museum displays and the visitors' interactions with the mummy themselves.
When thinking about museum exhibits, many talk about the exhibit only. However, the visitors of the exhibit have an equally important role in the exhibit. How people see real mummies is just as important as museums actually display them. One important factor to consider is that visitors to museums act based on their experiences, and in relation to mummies, visitors are often unintentionally disrespectful to mummies because of the public’s lack of experience with death. Since life expectancy increased, people do not encounter death and corpses as often as people did centuries ago. As a result, the issue with mummy displays can be traced back to how people do not look at human remains in a respectful way and not that displaying mummies is disrespectful in itself. Mummies do not need to be covered, people just need to readjust how they see human remains.
The potential benefits mummy displays bring could also outweigh any negatives of displaying human remains. Egyptian mummies in the media have long been misrepresented; whether they are seen as monsters or comedic characters, mummies in cinema have painted a misunderstood image of what mummies actually are. However, with their real mummies, museums could positively impact the public by clearing these misconceptions. Mummy displays have the potential to educate people about mummies, and this can also be done with the help of real mummies. With these potential benefits of mummy displays, it is reasonable to argue that real mummies are an important part of mummy exhibits. While media can warp the image of a mummy, a real mummy can fix those warps.
Truly enriching mummy displays are not a thing of the future. Some do exist now. The first example is the Egyptian mummy displays in the Milwaukee Public Museum; this display of mummies called Djed-Hor and Padi-Heru provides a great example of how museums can humanize mummies on display by presenting them as former people rather than scientific specimens or examples of ancient burial rituals, as other museums and the media have portrayed them.
Another enriching mummy display is a mummy named Meresamun in the Oriental Institute (OI) of the University of Chicago. Meresamun’s mummy was on display accompanied by an interactive screen that allowed visitors to get to know Meresamun as a person of the past, rather than just seeing a wrapped dead body. One of these interactive features includes an image of what Meresamun would have looked like.
Finally, taking both sides into consideration, I argue that the best solution to this debate is to meet at the middle. Fully covering all mummies is not a realistic solution, however something about museum mummy exhibits also needs to change shift the attitudes of museum-goers.
Close the Coffins, Put on some Pictures
One solution I propose is to put the mummies back in their coffins and display photos of the mummies instead. In this way, I believe these human remains would not be displayed to the public, but visitors would still see the real bodies of the mummies in photograph form. I think this could satisfy both sides by both displaying mummies and also respecting the dead by not displaying the physical bodies.
Show the Bodies and the Scans
Another possible solution is to create an exhibit that combines both the Milwaukee Public Museum's Djed-Hor and Padi-Heru exhibits and the Oriental Institute (OI) of the University of Chicago's Meresamun exhibit. These two exhibits combined would allow for visitors to more clearly see mummies as past people, and subsequently treat mummies with more respect. At the same time, interactive features using CT scans would make the exhibits more interactive, allowing visitors to learn more from the displayed mummies. I also believe this type of exhibit would allow museums to also include more unwrapped mummies into exhibits as CT scans would alow visitors to take a look into closed coffins without the need to open the coffins or take the human remains out. I believe there is a lot of potential for mummy exhibits to become more engaging through the use of new technology, and I believe that this would also make the display of human remains more worthwile. The use of technology to analyze mummies has happened before, and I believe using the same technology in museums would improve museum exhibits as well
Play Past Videos
The last solution I propose is to set a part of mummy exhibits for informing visitors about the misuse of mummies in the past. I believe that having a section like this would make visitors more conscious of their actions and words while looking at any real human remains. Knowing that mummies such as those on display were destroyed and put on display for entertainment would make visitors more mindful about treating the human remains they see with respect. In such exhibits, I think videos of mummy unwrappings, such as the one to the right, could be displayed to visitors as examples of mummy unwrappings. Showing these videos would be better than texts or labels, which people may be more likely to gloss over during their visits to the exhibit.