ABSTRACT
In most cultures, the remains of the dead are treated with respect and the bodies are buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of, with ceremony and respect. In many cultures burial grounds remain potent memorials and sanctified sites for many generations. The continued well-being and approval of the deceased is sometimes believed to be essential for the well-being of the living, and desecration of burial sites may disturb the spirits of the deceased. Disturbance of the dead is offensive to religious beliefs and, in times of war, grave desecration is often used as a means of demoralising a population. Yet western museums house the skeletal remains of hundreds of thousands of peoples, not only from ancient cultures but also from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
