#sorry that turned into a mini tangent its 1am maybe its not that deep but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it !!

[caterwaul-of-crows]

I was able to find a Smithsonian article about the dna findings for free & it brings up some interesting commentary about our modern cultural perceptions impact how we conduct anthropological understandings !! + how a handful of these individuals aren’t “European”; their casts possibly been artistically edited to exaggerate certain features of their imprints back in the later 1800’s . A very fascinating insight into the before mentioned modern interpretations impacting science but also an equally upsetting and intriguing look into the initial point of this post . Certain bodies will be on display to be gawked at but it’s controlled how they’re presented . People’s lives & bodies become a mode of artistic liberty’s & something to have viewers interpretations of them being projected onto instead of respected as their individual culture & lives outside of our own . I dunno it’s facilitating highly recommend giving the article a read !!

I was rambling on the issue of museums and human remains and how certain populations are more likely to have their bodies put on display to be gawked at and then went "well I guess the Pompeii casts were of Europeans. there are bones in there right?" and Googled it to make sure, at which point I confirmed that yes there are bones in there, but more interestingly DNA testing revealed that a cast of an adult holding a child everyone assumed was a mother and child were, in fact, a man and a kid entirely unrelated to him. Honestly that's more moving to me. Maybe they were connected in a way other than blood, but maybe a stranger saw a child when the world was ending and thought the one thing he could do was hold them.