What Made Tutankhamun’s Facial Hair into the Most Newsworthy Thing in Egypt?

William E. Carruthers ('What we are talking about when we talk about Tutankhamun’s beard?' January 29, 2015) puts the discussion of Tut's beard into its post-colonial context and argues that we should fight inequality which will somehow resolve all problems.

Once again, the scientific stability of the objects was linked to (and became more important than) the political ‘chaos’ occurring outside their institutional home. Once again, protesters outside were dying in their droves.[...] So how can anyone attempt to address this situation in any sort of constructive way? Perhaps one suggestion would be to stop blaming victims. Maintenance workers and conservators working with very low budgets and under very high pressure do not deserve criticism. The root causes behind this situation do, and unpacking them can go some to way to helping understand why.

And of course all the collectors over on the IAPN/PNG lobbyist's blog who suddenly felt themselves the world's greatest experts on conservation the moment the anti-Egyptian news stories broke are betraying the worst possible kind of neo-colonialist and xenophobic prejudices which simply serve to maintain these inequalities.

Vignette: Global Civilians for Peace

Hat tip to Sam Hardy