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This company sells real human skulls. It claims all of its skulls are ethically sourced. How do you ethically source a human skull for sale to a random buyer? (www.skullsunlimited.com)

submitted 2 months ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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No, I don't want to buy one. This came out of a discussion about my brother, who is so much weirder than me if you can believe it, who owns a real human skull.

I don't know how he got it. I don't know where he got it from, maybe this company, more importantly, I don't know why he would want such a thing. He is not a scientist, he works in IT. He did get an MFA in theater, wanted to be a professional theater director and loves Shakespeare, I can't believe the reason was because he wanted Hamlet to be super authentic.

We're not all that close, so it really hasn't come up in conversation. I only know about it because he posted elsewhere a while back that he was on a Zoom meeting at work and he showed it off and couldn't understand why everyone stopped laughing and got silent. So obviously he thinks it's cool to own it.

It used to be a person. I'm an atheist and I don't believe in an afterlife, but that's just basic disrespect.

Anyway... how can you ethically source a skull and then sell it on the open market?

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[-] sicarius@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

I don't see the problem. Loads of people have skulls of other animals on display. Why should a human be treated any different.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world -5 points 2 months ago

For one thing, there is very little evidence that most other animals have any sort of reverence for the dead.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

I mean... Vultures and other carrion creatures revere the dead, in their own special ways.

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 9 points 2 months ago

I could see how one voor find it enjoyable that their skull would be cherished by another human being.

A guy I knew had a skull from the Roman era, that had a hole in it from a ballista arrow. Not the best way to go, but how cool is it that your head can amaze people two thousand years from now

[-] nyctre@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

There's no way that wasn't a replica. How is that skull not in a museum or something?

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 3 points 2 months ago

It looked convincing enough, but we were quite young back then. The thing that always stuck with me that the hole in the skull was square shaped. It was only untill later that I learned that ballistae arrows did indeed have square arrowheads.

But it coud've been a replica, though I'm unsure where one would source one in a manner that wasn't somehow more dubious than having a real one. (The guy was a historian of sorts). Then again, where I live the Roman history isn't too far away.

[-] nyctre@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

People are saying that that website is selling skulls for 2000-3000$. A roman solider skull Would be a lot more expensive than that, I imagine. Given the age and the historical relevance. So that's two things to be amazed by when looking at that thing, I think.

If I were him, I'd definitely not mind that fate.

[-] sicarius@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Probably not what you were thinking but there's plenty of stories of dogs not leaving their owners after death like Greyfriars bobby.
Also elephants are known for mourning their dead.
I think if I donated my body to science and they were all done with it, and they could make more money for research by selling bits off to weirdos that would be fine by me. Maybe put a little QR code on it that people could scan and get a little biography of me. That would probably make archeology a lot easier.

this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024

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