Simon Lace is the museum manager at the Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery
Yes: One of Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery's most popular exhibits is the mummified remains of Ta-Kesh, a 3,000 year-old Egyptian princess. Ta-Kesh has been on almost permanent display for over a century, her remains forming the centrepiece of the museum's Egyptology displays.
The exhibit in which the remains form a part looks at the way the ancient Egyptians dealt with death and the afterlife; other mummified remains, both human and animal, are also on show. Comparisons are made with modern western European traditions, and visitors, especially children, are always fascinated by the mummy.
To my mind, her remains are displayed in a manner that is sensitive and respectful, but recent comments in our visitor's book show that some people find the exhibit distasteful and disrespectful.
I can understand the reaction, but I think museums have a duty to use their collections to talk about issues that some of the visiting public might find unsettling. Death is universal and, whilst some cultures regard it as a difficult subject, others have no such taboo.
I'm not advocating the wholesale display of human remains in every museum collection, but I do think that where the circumstances warrant it, we should be careful to avoid self-censorship. Sensitive displays of human remains can be a very effective means of communicating uncomfortable messages.
Tristram Besterman is the director of the Manchester Museum
No: Funny things, bodies. Through personal inclination and cultural tradition our flesh can be flaunted, celebrated or concealed. Whilst I am alive, my body is mine to do with more or less as I please, within the norms of society.
I can also decide what happens to my body when I die. I can donate bits for medical science and I can stipulate interment in an eco-friendly cardboard coffin. Some people want their corpse to be 'plastinated' for display.
In death, as in life, we expect our wishes to be carried out. Do we apply that principle to the display of bodies - or parts of bodies - in museums? Answer: no. Why not? Mummies from ancient Egypt, shrunken heads from South America, skeletons from medieval London, Iron Age bog bodies from Europe all fascinate us, especially when the tale they tell is informed by scholarly research.
We can learn so much from the study of human remains. But does that justify their display, especially when the cultural traditions of the deceased are violated in the vitrine? When does serious learning become morbid gawping? Where do we draw the line between museum display and fairground freakshow?
The question is not whether museums should be more brave. It is about reflecting more honestly on how we justify the display of human remains, and more openly about how we conduct the debate.
Yes: One of Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery's most popular exhibits is the mummified remains of Ta-Kesh, a 3,000 year-old Egyptian princess. Ta-Kesh has been on almost permanent display for over a century, her remains forming the centrepiece of the museum's Egyptology displays.
The exhibit in which the remains form a part looks at the way the ancient Egyptians dealt with death and the afterlife; other mummified remains, both human and animal, are also on show. Comparisons are made with modern western European traditions, and visitors, especially children, are always fascinated by the mummy.
To my mind, her remains are displayed in a manner that is sensitive and respectful, but recent comments in our visitor's book show that some people find the exhibit distasteful and disrespectful.
I can understand the reaction, but I think museums have a duty to use their collections to talk about issues that some of the visiting public might find unsettling. Death is universal and, whilst some cultures regard it as a difficult subject, others have no such taboo.
I'm not advocating the wholesale display of human remains in every museum collection, but I do think that where the circumstances warrant it, we should be careful to avoid self-censorship. Sensitive displays of human remains can be a very effective means of communicating uncomfortable messages.
Tristram Besterman is the director of the Manchester Museum
No: Funny things, bodies. Through personal inclination and cultural tradition our flesh can be flaunted, celebrated or concealed. Whilst I am alive, my body is mine to do with more or less as I please, within the norms of society.
I can also decide what happens to my body when I die. I can donate bits for medical science and I can stipulate interment in an eco-friendly cardboard coffin. Some people want their corpse to be 'plastinated' for display.
In death, as in life, we expect our wishes to be carried out. Do we apply that principle to the display of bodies - or parts of bodies - in museums? Answer: no. Why not? Mummies from ancient Egypt, shrunken heads from South America, skeletons from medieval London, Iron Age bog bodies from Europe all fascinate us, especially when the tale they tell is informed by scholarly research.
We can learn so much from the study of human remains. But does that justify their display, especially when the cultural traditions of the deceased are violated in the vitrine? When does serious learning become morbid gawping? Where do we draw the line between museum display and fairground freakshow?
The question is not whether museums should be more brave. It is about reflecting more honestly on how we justify the display of human remains, and more openly about how we conduct the debate.
