Lost City found in...Kansas?

Whenever you lift the blanket placed over history and look under it what you find is seldom very pleasing. Each nation will write its history to offer the best possible look for their people. The less pleasant things get swept under the rug and over time forgotten. Nowadays it is popular to dig up some of this stuff and so use it to rewrite history. This is no better than the previous offering because once again the facts will be filtered through a view-based on what is currently acceptable. You can't look at the actions of people in the past and judge them totally by today's views and beliefs.

The coolest thing about getting old is the ability to watch and actually SEE the vast changes that over time people make in what they believe is right, natural and acceptable. Much of what was normal and acceptable in the 40s and 50s is shocking to people born after the 70s. Conversely, the people of that time would look at the modern world's morals, beliefs and actions with horror and confusion. The line between good and bad back then was much more rigidly defined.
 
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The coolest thing about getting old is the ability to watch and actually SEE the vast changes that over time people make in what they believe is right, natural and acceptable. Much of what was normal and acceptable in the 40s and 50s is shocking to people born after the 70s. Conversely, the people of that time would look at the modern world's morals, beliefs and actions with horror and confusion. The line between good and bad back then was much more rigidly defined.

I think Hollywood had a lot to do with those changes. They even boast about it. I call it social engineering.
 
Whenever you lift the blanket placed over history and look under it what you find is seldom very pleasing. Each nation will write its history to offer the best possible look for their people. The less pleasant things get swept under the rug and over time forgotten. Nowadays it is popular to dig up some of this stuff and so use it to rewrite history. This is no better than the previous offering because once again the facts will be filtered through a view-based on what is currently acceptable. You can't look at the actions of people in the past and judge them totally by today's views and beliefs.

The coolest thing about getting old is the ability to watch and actually SEE the vast changes that over time people make in what they believe is right, natural and acceptable. Much of what was normal and acceptable in the 40s and 50s is shocking to people born after the 70s. Conversely, the people of that time would look at the modern world's morals, beliefs and actions with horror and confusion. The line between good and bad back then was much more rigidly defined.
I see your point but this does not discount the knowledge we gain in the hunt. If we can at least put some facts on the table and allow individuals to make their own theories. I agree we as humans tend to filter things through the eyes of our own beliefs and experiences but unearthing how others may have lived still has value in my opinion. This does not extend to grave robbing in my ethics. I love the idea of looking at the past. What animals existed and how man survived.
 
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I am not sure about the grave robbing thing. I wouldn't want someone to dig up my immediate ancestors but if there was something of value to be learned I'm not sure that I care about ancestors from several hundred years ago. To me, it is a little like organ donation. Once I'm dead and gone if there is something of my body that would be of use to someone they are more than welcome to it. I am a universal donor and have been for most of my life.

Were it not for the gifts that the tombs from the past have given to the future we wouldn't know a lot of the wonderful things that our ancestors accomplished. In studying the dead we offer them special immortality that otherwise would have been denied to them. After at least a million years of human existence it is probably hard to point out a place where someone hasn't died and might have been buried.

One of the reasons that the idea that the only people to come to North America other than the people that came across the Aleutian passage during the last ice-age before Columbus has lasted so long is because of this problem with "grave robbing". By federal law in the US, and bones found in the US that are dated to a period before the arrival of Columbus are by law Native American and have to be handed over to be destroyed. There is a skull in a safe in Washington right now that is obviously not Native American. It is much older than allowed though and was taken and can not be tested or checked. It is currently being held by the courts but it looks like it is going to be destroyed last that I read.

The sad thing is that this isn't actually done by the Native Americans. It is mostly the efforts of people in academia that refuse to allow ANYTHING to rock the boat of their pet idea about this. Such things like this are common in the areas of paleology and archeology. Someone's thesis for their Ph.D. is about a certain theory and after that, they will defend it with their life.
 
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I think overall, I'm okay with the idea of exhuming human remains and studying them - if they are treated with respect as the last remains of real people. But it seems to me that peoples' skulls are coldly tossed about as any other artifact, scribbled on, dumped in closets or boxes, put on display for people to gawk at and, in short, utterly desecrated. The learning part is good, but the ignorance displayed in that learning and afterwards appalls me.
 
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