Name(s):
Vulnerability of sacred sites
Desecration of ancient burial sites
Failure to recognize sacred landscapes
Nature
Religious sites embody the relationship of a people to the land and to the past. Mountains are marked as places of special pilgrimage; rivers and bridges become holy; a building or a tree, or rock or stone, may take on the power through which people can connect themselves to their own past. Such sites tend to be bulldozed, developed, or changed, for political and economic reasons, without regard for the emotional continuity of traditional societies. Destruction of sites which have become part of the communal consciousness creates a pathological condition in the communal body.
Counter-claim
Such concerns lead to the absurdity of the mass reburial of American Indian remains of a museum collection of skeletons. It implies that Tasmanian skeletons should be repatriated for reburial by their descendants, although Tasmanian aborigines have been exterminated. Although such skeletons have been thoroughly studied, new techniques tend to emerge which permit them to be restudied for more information, especially about genetic evolution.