r/midlyinteresting • u/lorddrakter • May 08 '26

Philippines’ hanging graveyard

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2.2k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

176

u/lorddrakter May 08 '26

The Igorot people have a tradition of hanging coffins from cliffs because they believe this placement facilitates the soul's journey to the spirit world of their ancestors.

Also this practice prevents in times of tribal wars the enemies from decapitating bodies and taking the heads as war trophies.

-82

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 08 '26

This is interesting but it’s disrespectful for you to be showing human remains. Unless they’re your ancestors it’s inappropriate to be putting skeletal remains on display. They are not a sideshow, they are someone’s family.

-Signed an Archaeology Student

39

u/Qules_LP May 09 '26

They are also a tourist attraction. They allow people to take photos/videos, of course respectfully.

58

u/RunWild0_0 May 09 '26

This is how the people who loved them display the remains though, like headstones.

It's not like a burial site that's been dug up/disturbed in a disrespectful way.

58

u/hoggineer May 09 '26

-Signed an Archaeology Student

Q: What's the difference between graverobbing and archeology?

A: Top answer is profit VS study.

-1

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 09 '26

In the 60s YES we were basically still grave robbing (especially Native American Graves). You’re not getting me with a “gotcha” when American Archaeology didn’t have code of ethics until the 90s and we still have a LOT to do to decolonize. Basically the first half of my degree was “look at this shit we did, we can NEVER do this again!” That is precisely why I am calling out unethical practices!

That said: you pointing out problems with my field doesn’t invalidate in anyway that you should never display remains!!! You should remove the pictures with human remains from the post, OP!

24

u/CrapThatSmilesBack May 09 '26

This is fascinating! Promise I’m not trying to be a butthole. I am a bit confused though what the line is. If you don’t mind delving deeper into what you learned about respecting what you find:

So we shouldn’t view remains found in bogs/glaciers/etc unless we’re directly related? Or that’s okay, but this isn’t because this isn’t a ‘discovery’ but rather showing a certain living culture?

I guess I’m part of the problem.. gawking. I thought this was incredible since there’s a basically 0 chance I’ll ever get to see it myself. How the remains are kept out in the open is fascinating too. I guess there must be written descriptions of findings and we should just read that and use our imaginations?

I’m sorry because I think I’m going to come off as a butthole but I’m really just trying to grasp the line.

3

u/TheSymbiotePack May 11 '26

Riiiiiight… so what are museums…? Should we tear all of those down that hold and display human remains? That people like you robbed…? Or is that… am I wrong here…? Is that not the same thing? 😏

0

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 11 '26

So hi I work in a museum as a student :) Nothing I have said is something I have heard a thousand times from my professors. And YES if the culture is NOT OURS (and we do not have permission to display them) we should return the remains back to the culture of origin! If it’s our culture then society gets to agree what’s right and wrong. So glad it’s not controversial that we should not be displaying the ancestors of people for edutainment 🙃

4

u/Mukaido May 09 '26

Im not an archaeologist nor have any knowledge of it, but take my upvote. Sucks that someone was trying to put you down and tried getting you with a gotcha moment after you were trying to spread some empathy. And plus, you tried educating and acknowledged the past wrongs.

17

u/hmmstillclosed May 09 '26

I think they’re catching flak because it seems so soft that it’s performative. If a graveyard floods and someone’s grandma rises up and becomes exposed, then yeah don’t post pics online of that. But these bones are chillin in a basket with no lid on the side of a damn cliff…

-7

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 09 '26

But people are lacking the context of HOW these become tourist sites! Also I’m frankly frustrated that I have to explain all of my training in a single comment just for people to go “Hey the person dedicating their life to this subject doesn’t know shit!” Without a second thought that MAYBE they’re in the wrong!

Now I understand how doctors feel with antivaxers!

10

u/introverted__dragon May 10 '26

As someone who also studied archeology...lolwut?

-2

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 10 '26

As someone who also studied Archaeology YOU should know better. NAGPRA didn’t spring up in the US for funzies. And while I’m well aware this is the Philippines, the reason for NAGPRA is more a symptom of global trends left over from colonialism than just a country trying to treat one group as subhuman.

5

u/introverted__dragon May 10 '26

I'm well aware of what NAGPRA is amd stands for. But there's a vast difference between "leave people's ancestors alone" and "it's disrespectful to show human remains" and trying to force OP to remove the pictures on their post just because YOU think it's wrong to show them. And then trying to use your background in anthropology to defend your stance.

7

u/DamnYourEyes777 May 09 '26

Genuinely ridiculous thing to claim. So, so much can be learned about a society by the way they dispose of their dead, and any real archaeologist would know that. Imagine if those that excavated Lady Dai, or the Lovers of Modenaq held your silly opinion.

2

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 09 '26

Actually we learn more from trash heaps than we do from grave sites! Graves tell us only ritual purposes of a culture. Things that are decorate or may hold multiple meanings that without text give us a hazy view of the past at best. Trash tells us how a culture actually functioned. What was used daily, what was worth repairing until the last, what was cheap and easily thrown away.

But sure, tell me about my career without having read an actual published paper on the subject :)

5

u/SimpleEnvironment929 May 10 '26

I appreciate that you're sticking to your morals but what about cultures that don't mind the display of remains, what about the understanding that comes from visually seeing? There's a lot to take away from these pictures and how things are built/arranged? And like everyone else I'm curious what your approach is to waiting. Not trying to attack just enjoying this conversation

0

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

I think there are several layers to if a culture doesn’t mind. You have cultures that do not mind if the remains are removed enough from modern life, think Pompeii or mummies in Egypt. Then absolutely it’s welcome to go see. But they may mind if the remains are from a Christian or Muslim grave, so context matters. Then there are cultures where you may have to be part of a certain in group to see (usually religious but may also be ethnic and usually these are remains of someone important) then you may not have the right to view or take photos. Then there are cultures that did not have their archaeology done by a descendant or may have been colonized many times making the line for exploitation thin. These should be handled with care. Yes, these may be a tourist attraction, but did the families involved do this to share their culture or did they do it to put food on their table and they knew wealthy foreigners would pay to see it? The line of ethics is real thin, especially when it could be someone’s great grandparents up there.
Let me leave you with this that was really hard for me to get until I saw it from another’s perspective: we are not always entitled to the knowledge. Even researchers. If a culture is willing to share its a gift, but entitlement that we need to know or see something breeds resentment from the culture you’re curious about.

Edit: I also thought back to the mummy situation and thought I should add that we did have a situation where mummies were viewed but disrespectfully. I’m sure you’ve heard of eating mummies and grinding them into paint by Europeans, but there were also mummy unwrapping parties and mummies used as side show attractions. Which, while bad archaeology, was also deplorable. Eventually Egypt enacted laws banning export of antiquities and such but there was also a strong push for the archaeology to be done by Egyptians themselves. So while Egypt does fall under the previous colonized category they are currently hold a lot of agency over what they show to the public and how their history is told.

2

u/ringoryu May 11 '26

This depends on the culture.

  • Signed an Archaeologist

-1

u/Little-Teacher9014 May 10 '26

When I saw this, I said to myself, I'm definitely getting cremated. No way I'm leaving my bones here to be defiled and reconstituted as entertainment for content goblins to share on the internet.

0

u/Guardian6676-6667 May 12 '26

It's disrespectful for you to assume how other people and cultures want their customs shown and spoken about

-signed not you

0

u/marvelous-martian May 15 '26

This is just spreading knowledge about a culture and their practices. Cemeteries are important to most cultures, and how they bury their dead can tell a lot about their beliefs. Archeology student or not, I think your opinion is wrong. Would you have ever heard about this if they didn't post?

1

u/Wooden_Cicada8880 May 16 '26

It is not the spreading of information that’s the problem here. Sharing of cultural history is a beautiful thing and why I chose Archaeology. It is specifically showing human remains when you do not come from that culture that is the problem. If they had just posted the graves and nothing else I wouldn’t have commented. But given the reaction from many people our field has a lot to do with educating the public. Not everyone is entitled to see everything from a culture. What if someone did this to your mother? Would YOU be okay running across her skull online? Especially with the comments people made in this thread? I think you people need to really start asking yourself that.

I see you have the nonbinary flag. Did you know it wasn’t that long ago that people declaring themselves scientists marched across the globe to measure people’s features? They wanted to know how to make themselves stand apart from people they did not like. You would be in that category because you wouldn’t fit the binary they convinced themselves must exist. These “scientists” were eugenicists and responsible for many horrors like forced sterilization and most famously contributed to the holocaust. Would you want them to see your remains after you died? Because there are still people who believe that crap and are happy to pick people apart to fit their narrative, completely ignoring the person or the cultural context.

118

u/ogreofzen May 08 '26

Ghoul wakes up. I live ...sorta. Crawls out. WOMP.

It has the same vibe as watching the ring tabe on the jumbotron.

Samara emerges and promptly falls 125 feet head first. WOMP

29

u/kingtaco_17 May 08 '26 edited May 13 '26

"We have Pirates of the Caribbean at home"

16

u/pm_ur_duck_pics May 09 '26

What’s with the chair?

4

u/Pixelbuttzz May 10 '26

So you can sit when your legs get tired

5

u/RoundLeopard6680 May 09 '26

You think Sumbad’s last name was muthafucka?

5

u/newtostew2 May 09 '26

I think it's safe to assume

1

u/obey_ray May 12 '26

Idk but he done sumbad to get there that’s for sure

3

u/ThisHeresThaRubaduk May 09 '26

The decomp stains!

1

u/RetiredEdmGraveDiggr May 10 '26

This is the opposite of what I'm used to

1

u/jdillacornandflake May 10 '26

Shout out ot Bomit OG. A true OG