Featured Unique Antique Store

Here's some photos I took in a fascinating shop on Royale St. in New Orleans back in 1995.I believe these were for sale.
This store actually had 2 human skulls for sale- '100 to 200 Hundred Year Old Bound Yoruba Skull' and '2500 year old Egyptian Mummy Head'.
They had quite a collection of Tribal items.

 

Just imagine the remains of your grandparents on display like that, and worse, up for sale.
Not something that should be shown as interestig items, imo.

 

Although a number of cultures have practiced cranial deformation, the only African example is among the Mangbetu in the Congo, not the Yoruba.

 

With respect...I have no issues with such showing.

 

I'm sure they don't bite. It's fine.

 

Just took the skull pic down . Sorry to offend anyone out there (hence the large CAUTION warning in the headline).
I admit I was amazed that in the 90's a retail shop was selling human remains. It was definitely quite a unique store.

 

Ya probably did the right thing, Bosko...but I don't believe there was serious offense taken by anyone in our community.

 

Whatever I can do to bring the temp down in these fluid (& in the U.S. insane) times.
Amazing to see what they sold in New Orleans 30 years ago-what a city ! The Big Easy's one of the few US cities that come close to matching Europe for history and charm and a very heavy dose of the supernatural.

 

I can see those being sold in New Orleans, especially 30 years ago. Now...would be iffy, although actual items intended for occult use are probably just fine.

 

Re Occult US Cities-New Orlean's up there with Salem,MA. Though if you consider that roughly 107 billion human beings have died to date-every spot on Earth could be pretty supernatural.

 

There is no way that I would be able to display any of the items in those windows in my house. They would scare me to death! I wouldn't be able to walk through my own house, especially at night. Why do people buy stuff like that? (Although I am fascinated by the Day of the Dead items we see from Mexico, they don't scare me for some reason).

 

I'd feel rather spooked having a stranger's bones in my house (I may be irrationally superstitious). Selling someone's bones is a whole different matter-it's basically 'body snatching'...i'd think very bad karma.
Having a loved ones ashes on your mantel or jewelry is seen in a totally different light in Western culture though.
Of course in ancient times it was a regular practice to keep your ancestors close-you buried their bones under the floor.
I saw a documentary by Josh Gates where he visits the Toraja people of Indonesia,known for keeping the mummies of their ancestors in their homes . They believe the spirit of the deceased continues to protect their families and some even "feed" the bodies as if they were still alive.
In many parts of the world,the idea of not believing in ghosts is viewed as absurd.

 

It wasn't seeing skulls as such that was a problem for me, it was seeing these particular skulls.
It is the fact that we in the West think it is OK to desacrate burial sites in poor countries for our own entertainment.
Many of us have no idea what this does to a culture, nor do many Westerners even care. We loot(ed) sacred sites in poor countries (or paid looters to do so) just because we can. And we don't care what intentions for an afterlife these people had. We also don't care about the feelings of the descendants of these people.

In some cases contemporary people were murdered to satisfy the demand for skulls. Much like Burke and Hare in Edinburgh, who targeted mainly Highlanders and Irish, also considered inferior races in their time.
Even worse, in Namibia the craving for skulls by German 'researchers' and dubious collectors even led to genocide among the Herero and Nama people in the early 20th century. After all, they were 'just primitive people', so that's OK. The survivors were forced to boil the heads of the victims and scrape the flesh off, so clean skulls could be shipped to Germany and from there to other countries in the 'civilised world'.
There is a direct link between the Namibia genocide and the genocide during WWII.

If you ever get the chance to see the German movie "Der vermessene Mensch", please do.

 

Read up on the Harvard University morgue scandal. My father donated his remains supposedly to the medical school for teaching purposes. The morgue attendant who had no oversight was selling remains on the dark web. I got the letter from Harvard that my father's name was on the list of possible stolen remains. There was a class action suit and the judge ruled that since the attendant wasn't working in his capacity as an employee, the University was not liable. Unreal. His job gave him access so they should have been responsible. Jon and I have also donated our eventual remains. I have no qualms about them being used for research or even in a museum, but the idea of someone profiting so ghoulish people can drink blood from my skull is a whole different story. https://www.nbcboston.com/investiga...arger-story-in-trading-human-remains/3136374/

 

@Bev aka thelmasstuff Bless your dad and you two for being willing to make this donation. (Regardless of the awful actions of that attendant. ) When my daughter was in High School, an advanced placement anatomy and physiology class was offered. A day at UW Madison to study in the cadaver lab there was included. After taking this class, she took CNA and EMT certificates and recently retired from 20 years on our ambulance service. She is also a deputy coroner for our county. Had she not been hired as dispatcher for our Sheriff's department, her plan was to study medicine. I clearly remember her excitement when she told me of holding a human heart and being able to identify structures she had studied on paper. Not scholarly research but learning experience that was a strong influence. Thank you and all who make this choice.

Linda

 

The matter of dealing with human remains is very complex. In earlier times in Europe it was not uncommon to casually disinter older burials in the cemetery to make room for new occupants in the limited "sacred" ground.


https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/alas-poor-yorick-you-are-too-much-of-a-distraction-6882838.html

 

It was shocking to see them for sale.The real horrifying thing about humans is how quickly people can demean their fellow homo sapiens into 'sub-humans'.
A Rwandan-scale genocide (500k-1 million people) literally had neighbor killing neighbor.
PS-The Harvard story is deplorable,but bless folks who despite this kind of desecration still donate their bodies to science.

Since the election of our 45th President the U.S. Justice System has been on full display.

 

That still happens overhere, but the remains are buried either in a communal grave, or the grave is dug deeper with another burial on top of the first. Relatives can also chose for cremation of the remains.
It is all done respectfully. Not very nice that they have to do it at all, but we live in a very small overpopulated country.

 

I heard of Burke and Hare, but not Namibia. Can't say I"m surprised, unfortunately.

 

We need to be able to do medical research on real human remains. These people working for Harvard were either stupid or evil or a little of both.

So, the morgue attendant got money for selling remains, the very creepy guy either resold them or used them for god knows what and the cute girl runs a shop making creepy dolls and she bought some stuff. Her shop shows ghoulish dolls holding human arm bones. This is what I object to.