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phoenixyfriend · 3 months

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Love it when the current events on the news are complicated on a moral level and you know the Correct Answer According To The Echo Chamber, but you also are the kind of person who has to break things down to the smallest level. [Sarcasm]

Please be civil, I'm not trying to convince people of anything, I'm trying to break down my own feelings on this and figure out what, if any, resolution it could have.

So the thing is

Some people would like to have their ashes buried on the moon.

There are reasons to dispute this, but ngl if we're gonna do space exploration, then subsidizing it through the vanity project that is having your ashes sent to the big rock in the sky seems like a relatively efficient way to fundraise.

However. The Navajo nation is asking that human remains not be placed on the moon because it is sacred to them and other indigenous peoples.

Which is fair, I understand them being upset, but...

Unlike specific mountains or lakes or even the entire continent of the Americas

The moon is. Everyone's.

The moon does not and should not belong to any one community.

The question becomes, does one community's claim over a celestial object hold more weight than another's?

It's not that other communities have a sacred history OF burying ashes, so the request isn't hurting anyone, but what about precedent? If a moon colony is set up, will deaths on the moon be expected to result in shipping bodies back to earth for burial? If the colony exists, how many bodies might that eventually be?

And just the general question of, like, what about other cultures that involve the moon in their religion? What if "joining the moon" is something a person views as achieving a oneness with THEIR moon god? If someone from China wants to do this in honor of Chang'e, or a Greek person for Artemis, or a Zulu person for iNyanga, or a Japanese person for Tsukuyomi, etc etc

Then where does that balance lie?

This isn't land that was stolen, it's the MOON.

I don't imagine it would be a COMMON choice (see: cost), but it's not unimaginable that someone would ask to do this out of a GENUINE religious or spiritual devotion to the moon or associated deity.

But there's a history of disrespect to indigenous culture's sacred places, especially in the Americas, and it's PROBABLY not like the rich individuals paying a private company to get their ashes up on the moon are doing it out of devotion to a moon god.

So in this case it would be putting the individual wants of a wealthy person above the cultural practices of many people.

But in the long run... What do we expect to come of it? What are the consequences of precedent? The rights of individuals need to be protected even when the individual is shit, but the rights of marginalized communities can't get dropped by the wayside on the way.

IDK

I don't know how to feel about it, it's complicated. I'm trying to relate it back to something personal that I DO have similar feelings about, but everything comparable (e.g. the Hagia Sofia situation) is very grounded in "it was ours first" so like. Yeah. That approach isn't working.

Nobody in the news I'm following has really explored it, just dropped a mention of it and moved on.

#moon #the moon #current events #space travel #phoenix talks

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sharpened--edges · 6 months

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Poor people, people of color, Indigenous people, queer people, and women receive the least benefit from the nuclear complex and are most exposed to its harm: the most toxic nuclear technology sites are located on Indigenous land and in proximity to poor communities and communities of color; predominantly Black cities are established as nuclear bait to protect the white suburbs, with the result that by 1984, an estimated 88 percent of the African American population would have been wiped out in the first minutes of a full-scale atomic conflict; safety standards regulating exposure to radiation are established based on the male body when women exposed to the same sources are 37.5 percent more likely to develop cancer; homosexuals are purged from the government at twice the rate of communists as the security of the nuclear complex is perceived to be threatened by their vulnerability to blackmail. As the activist Jan in Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters (1980) argues to a friend who semijokingly wants to keep the struggle focused on “good ole-fashioned” racism, “They’re connected. Whose community do you think they ship radioactive waste through, or dig up waste burial grounds near? Who do you think they hire for the dangerous dirty work at those plants? What parts of the world do they test-blast in? And all them illegal uranium mines dug up on Navajo turf—the crops dying, the sheep dying, the horses, water, cancer, Ruby, cancer. And the plant on the Harlem River.... Hell, it’s an emergency situation, has been for years. All those thrown-together plants they built in the forties and fifties are falling apart now. War is not the threat. It’s all the ‘peacetime’ construction that’s wiping us out.”

Jessica Hurley, Infrastructures of Apocalypse: American Literature and the Nuclear Complex (University of Minnesota Press, 2020), pp. 14–15.

#jessica hurley #toni cade bambara

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queerism1969 · 2 years

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Do you think being trans is a trend?

Transgender people are known to have existed since ancient times. A wide range of societies had traditional third gender roles, or otherwise accepted trans people in some form. Historical understandings are inherently filtered through modern principles and were largely viewed through a medical lens until the late 1900s.

Trans history has also been filtered through gay history, with some historians erasing the trans identities of historical figures.

Ancient Egypt had third gender categories, including eunuchs. In the Tale of Two Brothers (from 3200 years ago), Bata removes his penis and tells his wife "I am a woman just like you"; one modern scholar called him temporarily (before his body is restored) "transgendered".

Prior to western contact, some Native American tribes had third-gender roles,[76] like the Diné (Navajo) nádleehi and the Zuni lhamana. European anthropologists usually referred to these people as berdaches, which Indigenous people have always considered an offensive slur. In 1990, some Indigenous North Americans, largely in academia, adopted the pan-Indian neologism two-spirit, as an attempt to organize inter-tribally.

In 1776, the Public Universal Friend reported being genderless, dressed androgynously, and asked followers gained while preaching throughout New England over the next four decades not to use their birth name or gendered pronouns

Prior to the 16th-century arrival of Spanish conquistadors, the Inca Empire and their Moche predecessors revered third-gender persons and organized their society around an Andean cosmovision that made room for masculine and feminine ambiguity based on "complementary dualism." Third-gender shamans as ritual practitioners were subject to violence as the Spanish suppressed pre-colonial worldviews.

In ancient Assyria, transgender cult prostitutes took part in public processions, singing, dancing, wearing costumes and sometimes women's clothes, carrying feminine symbols, and even at times performing the act of giving birth.

Eunuchs (who existed in China since 4000 years ago, were imperial servants by 3000 years ago, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qin dynasty until a century ago) have sometimes been viewed as a third sex, or a transgender practice and Chinese histories have often expressed the relationship of a ruler to his officials in the terms of a male relationship to females.

Indian texts from as early as 3000 years ago document a third gender, which has been connected to the hijras who have formed a category of third-gender or trans-feminine people on the Indian subcontinent since ancient times.

The Buddhist Tipitaka, composed about 2100 years ago, documents four gender categories: female, male, pandaka, and ubhatobyanjanaka.

Drawings and figures from around 9000 to 3700 years ago, depicting androgynous and genderless humans in domestic, religious, and funerary settings, occur around the Mediterranean

Near what is today Prague, a burial from 4900 to 4500 years ago was found of a biologically male skeleton in a woman's outfit with feminine grave goods, which some archaeologists consider an early transgender burial.

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nature-is-punk · 1 month

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Yarrow and its Uses

Disclaimer: The below is the culmination of tedious, scrupulous research meant to assist with magical and medicinal practices. However, we lack a variety of lab-conducted herbalism trials in humans, so precautions are necessary. None of the below represents medical advice or is meant to replace treatment by a medical professional.

Identification and Profile:

Appearance: White, yellow, or pink flowers bloom from March to October. Very strong sweet smell. Often mistaken for hemlock or queen anne’s lace; leaves and flower shape are the most reliable identifiers for telling these three apart.

Distribution & Habitats: Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Thrives in meadows, roadside ditches, grasslands, and open forests. Attracts predatory wasps, ladybugs, and other beneficial insects. Reduces parasites in the nests of birds such as the common starling, who line their nests with it.

Associations: Yarrow was found in a neanderthal burial site in Iraq, suggesting its use by humans for more than 60,000 years. While yarrow has impressively consistent medicinal usage across cultures - namely healing and inflammatory pain relief - cultural and spiritual connotations vary. Yarrow’s botanical name refers to the legend that the centaur Chiron taught Achilles to use yarrow on the battlegrounds of Troy to heal wounds. Across the British Isles, yarrow was used to assist women in finding husbands, from divination to sleeping with the flowers under ones’ pillow. In Europe, it was known as a witch’s herb, occasionally called the Devil’s Nettle.

Uses: Topical: Effective antibacterial, astringent, antifungal, and antiseptic agent and can be applied to wounds to deter infection, speed up healing, and soothe inflamed or irritated skin. Ethanol extracted essential oil is the most lab-studied form of topical application, though dried flowers can be powdered, applied as whole dried flowers, or made into poultices and salves to wounds to stop bleeding. Oral: Flavonoids of yarrow make it a powerful antispasmodic and decent anti-inflammatory, most often used for gastrointestinal disorders. Yarrow can also induce sweat to break a dry fever. Essential oil of yarrow heals stomach ulcers. Navajo people chewed the leaves to reduce tooth and gum aches or inflammation in the mouth. Mild laxative properties. Mild sedative when consumed as tea. Tea also can be consumed to reduce headaches and cold symptoms, and sterols in yarrow can regulate menstrual cycles. Inhalation: Boiling the plant and inhaling the steam can reduce headaches and sinus inflammation. Dosage: Oral dosage is 2-4g of dried herb, flower and leaf, or 3g of whole flowers. Consecutive use is not recommended for longer than 2 weeks.

Interactions & Side Effects: - Adding nettle to yarrow consumed orally can reduce oxalate burden on kidneys. - Possibly an abortificant by relaxing the uterus, and may reduce breast milk supply while breastfeeding. - Increases production of stomach acid, lowers blood pressure, and increases risk of bleeding for those on blood-thinning medications. - Also interacts poorly with lithium based medications by increasing the body’s lithium retention.

#witch #pagan #herbalism #witchblr #witch community #witchcore #herbal

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myhauntedsalem · 20 days

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50 Paranormal Creatures From Around The World

Baba Yaga – “In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being who flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs.”

Santa Compaña – “The Santa Compaña is a procession of the dead or souls in torment that wanders the path of a parish at midnight involved in white hooded cloaks.”

Deogen – “The Deogen, or The Eyes, is a ghost that is said to haunt the Sonian Forest in Belgium, often seen in fog form and followed by smaller shadow figures.”

Strigoi – “In Romanian mythology, strigoi are the troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some of the properties of the strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss.”

Shubin – “Shubin is the mythological spirit of the mines. The legend of Shubin is distributed mainly in the mining towns of Donbas, Ukraine. The spirit is usually good, but can be wicked.”

Bhoot – “The common word for ghosts in Bengali is bhoot. In Bengal, ghosts are believed to be the spirit after death of an unsatisfied human being or a soul of a person who dies in unnatural or abnormal circumstance.”

Will-o’the-wisp – “A will-o’-the-wisp is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night, especially over bogs, swamps, or marshes. It resembles a flickering lamp and is said to recede if approached, drawing travelers from the safe paths.”

La Llorona – “La Llorona, or The Weeping Woman, is a widespread legend throughout the region of Hispanic America.”

Teke Teke – “The ghost of a young woman, or school girl, who fell on a railway line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. Now a vengeful spirit, she travels on either her hands or elbows, making a scratching or ‘teke teke‘ sound.”

Nyai Roro Kidul – “A legendary Indonesian female spirit, Nyai Roro Kidul is said to drag swimmers to their death.”

Herne the Hunter – “In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. He has antlers upon his head.”

La Planchada – “La planchada is Spanish for ‘the ironed lady.’ Her ghost appears in many hospitals, though mainly in the metropolitan areas, especially in Mexico City.”

Sihuanaba – “The Sihuanaba is a supernatural character from Central American folklore. She lures men away into danger before revealing her face to be that of a horse or, alternatively, a skull.”

Mae Nak Phra Khanong – “Mae Nak is a well-known and popular Thai female ghost. According to local folklore, the story is based on actual events that took place during the early 19th century.”

Naiad – “In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of water nymph (female spirit) who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks, and other bodies of fresh water.”

Vodyanoy – “A male water spirit, vodyanoy is said to appear as a naked old man with a frog-like face, greenish beard, and long hair, with his body covered in algae and muck, usually covered in black fish scales.”

Chindi – “In Navajo religious belief, a chindi is the ghost left behind after a person dies, believed to leave the body with the decedent’s last breath. It is everything that was bad about the person.”

Ubume – “In Japanese folklore, an ubume is an old woman or crone, with a child in her arms, imploring the passerby to hold her infant, only to then disappear.”

Krasue – “The krasue manifests itself as a woman, usually young and beautiful, with her internal organs hanging down from the neck, trailing below the head.”

Lemures – “Lemures in Roman mythology are the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites, or affectionate cult by the living.”

Patasola – “A female spirit from South America, patasola attracts men and lures them to the depths of the rain forest where she turns into a beast and devours the man.”

Jersey Devil – “The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States.”

Wendigo – “A wendigo is a half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Regiaon of both the United States and Canada. It is particularly associated with cannibalism.”

Kallikantzaros – “A malevolent goblin in Southeastern European and Anatolian folklore, the kallikantzaros or its equivalents are believed to dwell underground but come to the surface during the twelve days of Christmas.”

Banshee – “In legend, a banshee is a fairy woman who begins to wail if someone is about to die.”

Estries – “Estries are female vampires of Jewish folklore that were believed to prey on Hebrew citizens, particularly men.”

Hell hound – “A supernatural dog in folklore, the hell hound has mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength or speed, and phantom characteristics.”

Kelpie – “Kelpie, or water kelpie, is the Scots name given to a shape-shifting water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland.”

Bloody Mary – “Bloody Mary is a ghost said to appear in mirrors when a person repeats her name in front of the mirror and turn three times.”

Jinn – “Mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic texts, the jinn are made of a smokeless and scorching fire and inhabit an unseen world, another universe beyond the known universe.”

Dybbuk – “In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person.”

Bélmez Faces – “The faces of Bélmez is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in a private house in Spain which started in 1971 when residents claimed images of faces appeared in the concrete floor of the house.”

Incubus – “An incubus is a demon in male form who, according to mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to engage in sexual activity with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus.”

Hungry ghost – “Hungry ghost is a concept in Chinese Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way.”

Buckriders – “According to Dutch folklore, the buckriders were ghosts or ‘devils,’ who rode through the sky on the back of flying goats provided to them by Satan.”

Resurrection Mary – “Resurrection Mary is a well-known Chicago-area ghost story. Of the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ type, the story takes place outside Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois.”

Pig-Faced Women – “Stories of pig-faced women originated roughly simultaneously in Holland, England, and France in the late 1630s. The stories told of a wealthy woman whose body was of normal human appearance, but whose face was that of a pig.”

Domovoi – “A domovoi or domovoy is a protective house spirit in Slavic folklore.”

Bell Witch – “The Bell Witch is a poltergeist legend from Southern folklore, centered on the 19th-century Bell family of Adams, Tennessee.”

Bluecap– “A bluecap is a mythical fairy or ghost in English folklore that inhabits mines and appears as a small blue flame. If miners treat them with respect, the bluecaps lead them to rich deposits of minerals.”

Saci – “Best known in Brazilian folklore, saci is a one-legged black or mulatto youngster with holes in the palms of his hands who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap that enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes.”

Krampus – “In German-speaking Alpine folklore, krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure that punishes children during the Christmas season who had misbehaved.”

Ghoul – “A ghoul is a monster or evil spirit in Arabian mythology, associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh.”

Kappa – “Japan’s kappa are usually seen as mischievous troublemakers or trickster figures. Their pranks range from looking up women’s kimonos, to drowning people and animals, kidnapping children, and raping women.”

Poltergeist – “In folklore and parapsychology, a poltergeist (German for “noisy ghost”) is a type of ghost or other supernatural being supposedly responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed.”

Tikoloshe – “In Zulu mythology, tikoloshe is a dwarf-like water sprite. It is considered a mischievous and evil spirit that can become invisible by drinking water.”

Egg ghost – “A kind of Korean ghost, an egg ghost doesn’t have arms, legs, or a head, or even eyes, a nose, or a mouth. Legend says that when a person sees an egg ghost, he or she will die.”

Nang Tani – “A female spirit of Thai folklore, nang tani appears as a young woman that haunts wild banana trees.”

Matagot – “A matagot is, according to some oral traditions of southern France, a spirit under the form of an animal, mostly undetermined, frequently a black cat, generally evil, but sometimes helpful.”

Hairy Hands – “The hairy hands is a ghost story that built up around a stretch of road in Dartmoor, United Kingdom, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents during the early 20th century.”

#50 Paranormal Creatures From Around The World #ghost and hauntings #paranormal #ghost and spirits #haunted locations #haunted salem #myhauntedsalem #paranormal phenomena #hauntings #supernatural #cryptids #ghosts

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kittenzruleeverythingaroundme · 1 year

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My friend's father recently passed away, and due to his fixed income, he was unable to afford life insurance. He was a teacher in Navajo Nation, and as such, the family needs to pay in cash for burial. The family is struggling to pay for funeral expenses.

Please share this, and help out if you can. Thank you!

#gofund me #Navajo Nation #mutual aid #native #teachers

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littlefeather-wolf · 3 months

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TRANSGENDER IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE ...

They are considered Sacred, no one has the right to Judge anyone, only the Greatest Creator of the World ...

Before the arrival of European explorers, queer Native Americans were recognized accepted, and maintained significant roles in tribal communities. According to Randy Burns (Northern Paiute), “our families and communities recognized us and encouraged us to develop our skill… [and] in turn, we made special contributions to our communities.” Traditional gay ancestors were healers, artists, hunters, warriors and providers of families and communities ... Lesbian women played key roles in tribal communities, such as the famous Kutenai woman, who was a warrior, an intertribal courier, and a prophet, and the Woman Chief of the Crow Indians. “Lesbian women became powerful shamans and medicine people” (Burns). Gay male ancestors were skilled in the arts, crafts, and religious traditions of their tribes. Some men were involved in the burial of the dead, as such “contact with the spirit world was deemed too dangerous for others. ... In many tribes, such as the Lakotas, Cheyenne, Navajo, and Mojave, the presence of homosexuality and transvestite men were acknowledged and not faced with judgement. Gender fluid, or multi-gendered Natives, were seen as powerful for their spiritual abilities. These people were considered to ‘see’ from the eyes of both men and women, allowing them to perform spiritual practices such as healing, interpreting dreams, and mediators ...

EUROPEAN AND COLONIAL INFLUENCES

The term berdache, now outdated, derives from French explorers, who described Native Americans who dressed and worked opposite of their born sex. The term also extended to Native people who formed emotional and sexual relationships with others of the same sex. Berdache, although showing explorers acknowledged gender varying Natives, it represents the beginnings of European influence of categorizing gender in Native American culture ... Due to colonization, strict gender binary roles were enforced on Native Americans through governmental and religious actions, in efforts to assimilate them into American culture and save us from the savages they claimed we were, As a result of this, “Indian leaders, even traditionalists, have adopted attitudes of white society”, meaning, Native American culture are starting to Judge as white man, white men think they are superior, their accepting view towards gender-varying individuals ... Tribes also had their own terminology for describing these individuals, such as Winkte (Lakota Sioux), N àdleehé (Navaho), and Alyha ( Mohave) ... In many Native nations, there was more than two concepts of gender. Colonization has diminished these practices, and replaced them with binary molds, however modern movements have sought to reclaim these gender fluid traditions.We’’wha (1849-1896) was a male-bodied person, who dressed in women’s clothing and performed feminine habits such as managing the household, weaving, and pottery. We’wha also practiced male religious activities, and was noted to be the strongest and most intelligent of the Zuni tribe ... We’wha was an accepted and important member of the Zuni, as he maintained a role in the tribe’s council. He traveled to Washington D.C., and met President Grover Cleveland, and was highly accepted among Washington society, becoming a celebrity of sorts ... Christian missionaries, however, spread their influence over the Zuni tribe, with the intent of converting the community towards binary ideals. We’wha was imprisoned, but after returning home following his release, he remained a symbol of gender fluidity within indigenous traditions.

#native american #littlefeather wolf

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lowkeynando · 11 months

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Native Americans in the vicinity of Spirit Mound, South Dakota held a belief in little people who inhabited the mound. [4] Clark wrote that the local Native Americans could not be persuaded to approach the mound, as they feared these tiny "Deavals" and considered them to be dangerous. [5] Although members of Lewis and Clark's party visited the mound, they did not encounter any unusual beings.

A graveyard unearthed in the 1830s in Coshocton County, Ohio, was believed to contain skeletons belonging to a pygmy race. In fact, the graves (which were roughly 3 feet (0.91 m) long) were "bone burials" containing disarticulated or bent bones packed together. [6]

Coyote is a mythological character common to many cultures of the Indigenous peoples of North America, based on the coyote (Canis latrans) animal. This character is usually male and is generally anthropomorphic, although he may have some coyote-like physical features such as fur, pointed ears, yellow eyes, a tail and blunt claws. The myths and legends which include Coyote vary widely from culture to culture. Coyote is the tutelary spirit of

"Coyoteway", one of the Navajo curing ceremonies. The ceremony is intended to restore the patient's harmonious relationship with Coyote and the world, and to bring about a return to good health. Coyote is featured in the mythology of numerous peoples from the areas AND

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jcmarchi · 3 months

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Just Because You Can Pay to Have Your Ashes Buried on the Moon Doesn't Mean You Should - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/just-because-you-can-pay-to-have-your-ashes-buried-on-the-moon-doesnt-mean-you-should-technology-org/

Just Because You Can Pay to Have Your Ashes Buried on the Moon Doesn't Mean You Should - Technology Org

Sending human ashes and personal mementoes to the Moon is now possible, but it opens up a maze of legal and ethical conundrums.

When NASA attempted to return to the Moon for the first time in 50 years, more was at risk than just US$108 million worth of development and equipment.

The Moon is smaller than Earth, and this fact is also one of the reasons why its gravity is not sufficient to retain any atmospheric gases near its surface. Image credit: NASA

The agency earned the ire of the Native American Navajo people, who made a bid to stop the launch because of an unusual inclusion in the payload.

The Peregrine lander (which completed its controlled re-entry into the atmosphere late last week) carried human ashes, including those of famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. A commercial partnership also allowed paying customers to send their mementos to the Moon.

As space exploration becomes increasingly privatised and commercial, you can now send your favourite stuff to the Moon. But what does that mean, both ethically and legally?

The Moon open for business

US company Astrobotic owns the Peregrine, which is the size of a small car. It ran into fatal fuel issues shortly after being launched on Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral.

On board are “vanity canisters”. The idea arose in a partnership between the firm and global freight company DHL.

Under the deal, anyone can send two and a half centimetre by five centimetre package to the lunar surface for less than US$500. Apart from size, there were a few other limitations on what each package could contain.

Astrobotic, founded in 2007 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one of several US companies providing commercial lunar payload services to NASA to deliver science and technology to the Moon. Peregrine was also carrying scientific instruments from six countries and many science teams.

Perhaps surprisingly, sending ashes into space is not new aboard suborbital and Earth orbital flights.

Two American companies make a business of the service starting at just a few thousand dollars – Celestis and Elysium Space. The practice is embraced by many, including astronauts who have been in space.

A Moon burial (yes, you can buy one) costs more – around US$13,000.

Commercial payloads launched from US soil require approval, but that approval process only covers safety, national security, and foreign policy.

Peregrine, if it had made it, would have marked the first commercial lunar burial. It’s uncharted territory as other worlds become within reach, although it is not the first time it has come up.

NASA pledged to consult in the future after an outcry from the Navajo when, 20 years ago, it carried some of Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes to the Moon aboard the Lunar Prospector probe. Like many other indigenous cultures, the Navajo Nation considers the Moon sacred and opposes using it as a memorial site.

However, NASA said in a press briefing it had no control over what was on Peregrine, highlighting the gaps between commercial enterprise and international space law.

A legal minefield

Another question concerns the rules in individual nations on where and how human ashes can be located, handled, and transported and how those could extend to space. For example, in Germany, ashes must be buried in a cemetery.

With space privatisation accelerating, the ethical and legal maze deepens.

The Outer Space Treaty (OST) declares space the “province of all mankind” while banning national appropriation.

It fails, however, to address what private companies and individuals can do.

The recent Artemis Accords, signed by 32 nations, expand protection to lunar sites of historical significance. But these protections only apply to governments, not commercial missions.

And no one owns the Moon to grant burial rights, or any other world or celestial body.

The treaty requires states to authorise and supervise activities in space. It requires “due regard” for the interests of other states.

Many countries have space law that includes grounds for refusing payload items not in their national interest, for example Indonesia and New Zealand.

Nations apparently without such consideration, including Australia and the US, may need to consider expanding this template with the emergence of the commercial world in a traditionally governmental arena.

Where to draw a line?

Earth’s orbit is already clogged with defunct satellites and, further out, items like Elon Musk’s Tesla.

According to space archaeologist Alice Gorman, we have already spread space probes across other worlds, including the Moon, Mars, Titan, and Venus, but much may be treasure rather than junk.

For example, the Apollo astronauts left official mementos, such as a plaque marking the first human footsteps on the lunar surface. Some have left personal ones, too, like Apollo 16’s Charles Duke, who left a framed family photo.

However, sending a clipping of your hair or the ashes of your pet dog to the Moon may not qualify as culturally and historically important.

The problem, therefore, is where we want to place a line in the sand as we step out into the cosmos onto the shorelines of other worlds.

We cannot turn back the clock on private space enterprise, nor should we.

But this failed mission with ashes and vanity payloads exemplifies the unexplored questions in the legal and ethical infrastructure to support commercial activities.

It is worth pausing for thought on future commercialisation such as mining asteroids and the eventual colonisation of space.

Source: UNSW

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

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thenewsfactsnow · 3 months

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New Service Allows Ashes to be Laid to Rest on the Moon

Moon is in demand : As space exploration becomes increasingly privatized and commercial, the possibility of lunar burials has become a reality. Two American companies offer the service, allowing paying customers to send their mementos to the Moon. However, the practice has raised ethical and legal questions. The Navajo Nation, for example, considers the Moon sacred and opposes using it as a…

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phoenixyfriend · 3 months

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Anon from earlier, thanks for the met gala comparison, because I didn’t realize there was anything adjacent to the burial part of the project/process. While it makes it make more sense (here’s money for your research, on the condition take my ashes with you when you go up there), and I agree with the space industry being private sounds sketchy thing, if we circle back to the main point, the moon belongs to everyone would be my point of view - infringing on beliefs is insensitive, but making the moon exclusive for either those beliefs (which set and peoples do you choose, and do they conflict?) or the rich both sound awkward. So the answer would maybe be appease neither: don’t bring belief systems into public sector (followed by don’t allow space to be private?), and donations shouldn’t have strings attached? (Also, are they (the navajo) just making this concern now, or were they always opposed to space exploration/moon landings, and I’m just learning now. This is getting to be a large topic, I see your point)

Complicated as heck! And yeah, the privatization is a huge aspect.

From what the podcast I don't remember Evi one, probably either NPR or BBC) said, similar objections were brought when an "ashes on the moon" project was on the table in 1996. This article corroborates it and provides some additional info:

The human remains aboard the lander won't be the first on the moon, as ashes of Gene Shoemaker, the founder of astrogeology, were buried on the moon in the late 1990s by the Lunar Prospector.

Which is wild, and honestly that sounds like the exact person who Deserves a lunar burial.

#current events #history #the moon #Phoenix answers asks #space exploration

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xtruss · 3 months

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Plan to Bury Human Remains on Moon Draws Fire From Native Americans

Private companies are planning to send human remains to the lunar surface, but a Native American group rejects the idea.

Two private US companies are planning to rocket human remains into space for a burial on the moon, but the leader of the Navajo Nation has denounced the idea.

Monday morning’s launch of the Peregrine lander represents the first effort by private companies to send a lander to the moon. United Launch Alliance and Astrobotic have contracted with various institutions seeking to contribute to the spacecraft’s payload – among them are two companies seeking to bury DNA and human remains on the lunar surface.

But the Navajo Nation, which along with other Native American tribes views the moon as highly sacred, opposes the idea.

“We're not trying to say, 'don't do exploration, don't go to the moon and don't do those types of scenarios,’” said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren in a call with reporters. “All we're just saying is this is the one part that we feel like there should be some sacredness to it.”

Nygren calls the plan “An Act of Desecration” and has complained to the US Department of Transportation and NASA, whose Commercial Lunar Payload Services program sanctioned the launch.

“We recognize that some non-NASA commercial payloads can be a cause for concern to some communities,” responded Joel Kearns, an administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “And those communities may not understand that these missions are commercial and they're not U.S. government missions, like the ones that we're talking about.”

Kearns framed Monday’s launch as an opportunity to explore commercial opportunities created by space launches and insisted the US agency was powerless to intervene against the private companies. However the US government announced the creation of an “interagency group” to study the Navajo Nation's concerns.

The US government has historically ignored Native tribes’ complaints against desecration of symbols they consider sacred, such as when a giant monument was carved from Mount Rushmore, known as Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe or “Six Grandfathers” to the Lakota people. The Sioux Nation has demanded the return of the land the massive sculpture was carved on, which the US Supreme Court found was illegally seized from the tribe.

— January 8, 2024 | Sputnik International

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mccoy1879 · 5 months

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In the early days of Nacimiento peace reigned over the land. The nomadic and predatory Apaches and Navajos who once posed a threat to the people seemed to have retreated leaving the settlers to engage in their daily lives of grazing livestock and planting crops. The town's population was rapidly growing and among the new settlers were the Lucero family who had located themselves within the boundaries of the San Joaquin del Nacimento grant at Rito San Miguel. A sense of hope and excitement filled the air as a new community began to take shape.

The events that led to the establishment of the town of Nacimiento were meticulously recorded in the church archives at Santa Fe New Mexico. The dedicated pastor diligently registered births and burials from the years 1767 to 1770 providing a glimpse into the early years of the settlement. The records also detailed the registration of births and marriages up until 1777 painting a vivid picture of the community's growth and development.

However as the settlers began to establish their lives and build their dreams a dark cloud loomed on the horizon. Within the period leading up to 1779 the settlers of Nacimiento found themselves facing a new challenge. The Utes Apache and Comanche tribes once peaceful neighbors had turned hostile. These indigenous people started raiding the settlers' herds decimating their livestock and destroying their hard-earned crops. The safety and prosperity of the town were under attack.

The once peaceful and harmonious coexistence between the settlers and the native tribes had been shattered leaving the people of Nacimiento in a state of fear and uncertainty. The town's defenses were put to the test as the settlers struggled to protect their livelihoods and their families from the relentless raids.

As the attacks continued the people of Nacimiento knew they had to leave and seek safety elsewhere. They devised strategies to defend their lands. It was a time of hardship and resilience as the settlers fought to preserve their way of life amidst the constant threat of violence. The story of Nacimiento's beginnings serves as a testament to the resilience and determination of its people.

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