ABSTRACT
Popular lore has transformed mummies from mortal remains into mythological creatures. What influences do media stereotypes have upon museum visitors’ interpretations of mummies? Do exhibits address these stereotypes and the ethical issues raised by the legend of the curse? Do visitors think about ethical issues pertaining to mummies’ display? Little research had been conducted into visitors’ responses to mummies prior to my project (see Appendix).1 A 1973 Brooklyn Museum Visitors’ Book (Wedge ed. 1976) chronicled reactions to a display of Egyptian art, including a few references to mummies. More recently, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at London’s University College commissioned several focus group discussions about ancient Egypt (Fisher 2000a, 2000b cited by MacDonald 2003) and mounted a travelling exhibition in 2000-1, Ancient Egypt: Digging for Dreams, in which thousands of visitors were invited to record their thoughts about mummies’ display (MacDonald 2002:105). My 1995-6 surveys, which canvassed the responses of 790 individuals across three
countries, yielded some remarks about mummies virtually identical to those collected in Brooklyn over twenty years earlier. Since popular views about this subject have been so slow to change, they probably remain fundamentally similar today. Unlike the other studies’ data, mine are supplemented by an extensive collection of museum visitors’ candid remarks about mummies – quotations that reveal the reasoning behind the types of responses collected in formal surveys and prove that the media influence personal beliefs.
