Tattoed Maori Head - Body Part or Art?
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This object reflects the barbaric trafficking in body parts, the belief that another race was inferior to ours - Rouen deputy mayor Catherine Morin-Desailly PARIS (New York Times) - Since 1875, the mummified, tattooed head of a Maori warrior has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen in Normandy. But when Rouen's mayor arranged recently to return it to New Zealand as an act of "atonement" for colonial-era trafficking in human remains, the national Ministry of Culture stepped in to block him. The ministry contends that the head is a work of art that belongs to France and that its return could set an unfortunate precedent for a huge swath of national museum collections - from Egyptian mummies in the Louvre to Asian treasures in the MusÃ©e Guimet and African and Oceanic artifacts in the MusÃ©e du Quai Branly. "The mayor of Rouen made his decision without any consultation, and his decision is against the law," Olivier Henrard, the legal adviser for the Ministry of Culture, said.  "There are other Maori heads, there are mummies, there are religious relics in France," he said. "If we don't respect the law today, tomorrow other museums or elected officials might decide to send them back, too." Rouen officials insist that the Maori head is a body part, not artwork, and that due to France's bioethics law it must be returned to its place of origin. "This object reflects the barbaric trafficking in body parts, the belief that another race was inferior to ours," said Catherine Morin-Desailly, Rouen's deputy mayor, who proposed the return. "It belongs to the heritage of humanity, not in storage somewhere in a museum."  The Maoris traditionally preserved the tattooed heads of warriors killed in battle to keep their memory alive. Trade in body parts flourished in the 19th century, as contact with outsiders increased. Europeans collected Maori remains. Some Maori slaves were forcibly tattooed, then decapitated.  Morin-Desailly cites French precedent concerning the return of human remains: Those of Saartjie Baartman - the "Hottentot Venus" as she was labeled in her day. A farmer's slave born in 1789, she was sold to a British Marine surgeon and presented in public in London and later in Paris as a freak because of her oversized buttocks and genitalia.
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Damien Seguy and company have developed a brand new plush toy based around the PHP elephant idea set out by Vincent Pontier a while back:   The elephant is a community project. It was started as a crazy idea that I used to suggest to a number of people. I managed to draw a lot of happy smile, but I suspect that half this happiness was due to sheer craziness of the project. [...] Of course, it was impossible to prototype this mascot without involving Vincent Pontier. The rest is history. We started prototyping, and within a month, we got this excellent looking plush toy (we'll tell you about the manufacturer once we get the full load of them).   Check out the post on Nexen.net for lots of product shots (including the obligatory cute kid shot) and details on how it was developed and the answer to the important question - where you can get your hands on one.   Some groups have already ordered a large number of them for themselves and their members, but an online shop is coming soon to Nexen.net where you can pick up your own fuzzy bit of PHPness.
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Gallery: The Japanese have been making mechanical men for a long time, from medieval clockwork dolls to modern-day marvels both real and fictional. It's all on view in a Tokyo art exhibit.
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Opening a show on body decoration through the ages at Paris's Musee Dapper is a series of giant black and white photographs of modern-day body art -- implants under the skin, scarring, tattoos and piercings.
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Thirty or forty years ago, those who had tattoos engraved on their bodies were usually sailors, truck drivers or bikers.
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With her dyed-brown long hair and tight designer jeans, Shoko Tendo looks like any other stylish young Japanese woman -- until she removes her shirt to reveal the vivid tattoos covering her back and most of her body.
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Some Neanderthals may have had fair skin and red hair, giving them an appearance resembling modern Europeans, an international team of researchers said on Thursday.
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The tattoo of the future may be good for your health rather than just your image.
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The Normandy city of Rouen pledged Thursday to find a way to return the mummified, tattooed head of a Maori man to New Zealand despite a court ruling that it must stay in France.
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NANAIMO, British Columbia - A bus passenger checking an unattended purse for identification found a human skull inside, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
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According to MyHeritage.com, everyone has a little celebrity inside. Largely meant for charting family trees and as a genealogy community, the Web site also boasts an addictive face recognition technology that blurs the boundary between the great unwashed and the thoroughly groomed.
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By San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Mar. 8--What to wear   3-D avatars have a choice of body types, skin tones, age, clothing and accessories.
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It has long been a matter of contention: Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as the history books say? Or did the Spanish conquerors overstate it to make the Indians look primitive? In recent years archaeologists have been uncovering mounting physical evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, if not number.
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By staff writers and wires. Iraqi security forces said two of the bodies found beheaded yesterday had tattoos written in the Roman alphabet - one saying &quot;HECER&quot;, and the other a letter H. The third body had
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Prodotti da Tessitura Taiana di Olgiate Comasco
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Dopo Skulls (Skulls.B) arriva un nuovo visur per cellulari. Si tratta di Cabir (e Cabir.B) che sfrutta le connessioni GPRS per la sua diffusione e nascondendosi in un file SIS dal nome icons. Il pericolo, stando
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A feud flares over an ancient skull that may or may not have belonged to a new species of human