Anthropology.net

Way back in October of 2006, I and other anthro-bloggers covered the debacle that surrounds Lucy’s trip to the United States. To most of us, it sounded awesome at first. It gave most of us a chance to see the actual fossils, as well as a way to support Ethiopian museums. Then as we began to assess the circumstance, especially the risk for the fossils to be damaged, we began to second guess our enthusiasm.While I was in Ethiopia, I got a chance to see the boxes that held Lucy’s remains be packed and readied for shipment over at the National Museum. The overall consensus in the museum was a bit somber.It seems like Ethiopians outside of their country and others in the United States are a bit more ticked off than somber about the whole situation. BBC News is covering a short little blurb where they quote, Zelalem Assefa, a Ethiopian academic who works at the Smithsonian Institution, saying,

“These are original, irreplaceable materials. These are things you don’t gamble with.”

After almost a year after I reported Lucy’s travel plans, I noticed it has almost always been me sharing my opinion or quotes of professional paleoanthropologists stating how they think about this. I want to hear from you, so I’ll open this thread up and ask what your opinion is on the matter? Will you try and see Lucy in New York, Denver, and/or Colorado?