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Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

library.harvard.edu

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Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#11

Post by rightbyte »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #2

Fascinating stuff. While I can understand the decision and defend it, how is it really any different from making mummies 'properly' buried according to our current rituals?

I guess time passed? There are no potential relatives to Tutankhamen that might make claims. I would be rather pissed if there was a book with my great grandmas mentally ill sister's skin on it.

In a similar vain, there are a lot of skeletons and organs collected from dead mental patients in universities that did not get proper consent.

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#14

Post by [deleted] »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #6
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #2

Fascinating stuff. While I can understand the decision and defend it, how is it really any different from making mummies 'properly' buried according to our current rituals?

Were mummies not usually aware of, and presumably consented, to mummification before death? And then there’s the angle of sparing library staff from handling the human skin.

[deleted]

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#16

Post by xattt »

542458 wrote: post #4
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #2

Fascinating stuff. While I can understand the decision and defend it, how is it really any different from making mummies 'properly' buried according to our current rituals?

I would hazard a guess that the remains of a mummy still present interesting research opportunities, whereas the skin here is just skin, and there’s no real value in keeping it around other than the sensational. IIRC last time I was at the Museum of History in Ottawa they had noted that many of the indigenous artifacts on display are replicas - for many artifacts where they felt everything that they could learn had b…

A physician binding a book in the skin of his patient seems like a sick psychopathic power move. This is similar to the recent case of a surgeon who branded a transplanted liver with his initials.

The removal of the skin binding is symbolic, and is a small initiative in the gestalt of righting historical wrongs and creating a just society.

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#19

Post by ethbr1 »

>> The volume’s first owner, French physician and bibliophile Dr. Ludovic Bouland (1839–1933), bound the book with skin he took without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked.

That's... a thing you can do. Yeesh.

Bet he was a Lovecraft fan in his final years.

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#20

Post by kome »

torstenvl wrote: post #12

Absolutely indefensible position. Destroying artifacts and evidence of the past simply because we don't agree with what happened in the past is a vile sin that our descendants will never forgive us for.

I agree, destruction of important heritage with absolutely ridiculous claims. Taliban level shit.
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