R: [Aztlan] mummy of girl

[eztunesi at tin.it]

Here in Europe you could pay in the past to see a relic of a saint. 
That was profit for both public and the church. The public hoped to get 
a blessing and salvation and the church got cash. Maya rulers used 
bones of ancestors in rituals to secure their political power. The 
display of human skinns of scrified men and women in Aztec culture was 
also (not only) a diplay of political power. In pre-christian Ameriacas 
as elsewhere rituals are always for the benefit and profit of the 
single or the comunity. Every piece of incense burned is a "do ut des" 
(I give so you give). The Museum is obviously not a tempel and the 
visitors not ancient worshippers, but still they are human beings, 
seeking the understanding of the world that surrounds them. Contact 
with a dead ancestor is one way to seek this answers. The context and 
the formula changes, the human need is still the same. BTW the museum 
make money just like the church with the finger of a saint or the 
fragment of the Real Cross. 
Raphael Tunesi