[bennyp101]

Once someone is dead, they are dead. The body is just a vessel carrying around the person, I don't think it /is/ the person. I don't think there is much difference between preserving some bones behind a glass case, and some Roman coins.

I understand why some people do, but it's just some bones - something that is not rare or particularly special in the grand scheme of things. Obviously there is a lot of spirituality and religion attached to remains, but that shouldn't have any bearing on practical matters.

[dash2]

You're perfectly entitled to think that. You're not entitled to dig up my parents because of those beliefs, and if you do, you will rightly be locked up!

[lotsofpulp]

The "rightly" in your statement is simply a function of who has political power. For example, I doubt many people who dug up Native Americans' parents got locked up. Also, once your parents' grandchildren or maybe great grandchildren pass away, there is little chance anyone will care about digging them up, especially if the land is in demand.

[dash2]

The fact that some people did not get punished does not imply that what happened wasn't wrong.

You're also mistaken that people don't care. In fact archeologists think carefully about the dignity of human remains: https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/archa...; https://apabe.archaeologyuk.org/pdf/APABE_ToHREfCBG_FINAL_WE...

[arcbyte]

I think generally you're right. OP has a point, but at the end of the day, as social beings we all play a collaboration game. This involves sometimes doing things or forgoing doing things that we have no interest in because others have an interest they want respected. In exchange, we expect respect for our interests, even when others don't share that interest.

If OP doesn't care about human remains, there's nothing wrong about that. However, others do care about how remains are treated. in exchange for care about whatever OP does hold sacred or in honor, OP ought to show care about human remains, despite being disinterested.

The first link you posted 404d for me, but I read the second PDF to largely agrees with me and OP actually that it is the interests of the currently living people we actually care about. To be clear, I'm one of them.

[tatersolid]

This is mostly false; Every non-sociopath culture has respect for the dead of other cultures as part of its base.

In my rural, mostly Lutheran Indiana childhood all Native American burial sites were treated with as much respect as “our own”

[bennyp101]

And I wouldn’t dig up any remains that somebody had a connection to - I totally get that.

Socially it is not the done thing, but society changes, and I wonder if in 50/100 years we value the land more than desecration?

Human remains and how they are treated is always going to be a divided subject

[quantified]

I see your point. People are emotional, have taboos of all kinds and are funny about life and family. It’s not about logic.