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Bones: In Limbo Continued from M2 Viewed in this light, some of the boundaries between science and faith begin to crumble. Last year, in an essay in Harper’s Magazine, Fenton Johnson re­called the distinction between belief and faith drawn by Zen philosopher Alan Watts. Whereas belief is characterized by rigid certainty, W atts said, faith, like science, requires constant questioning. But neither certainty nor questioning are themselves a source of trouble; rather, the trouble starts when one group uses inflex­ible ideas to distinguish itself from others. “When communities use belief . . . as a means to establish identity , sooner or later the guns appear,” Johnson wrote. All human cultures recognize the sanc­tity of human remains and burial. It’s a deep instinct that can’t, and shouldn’t, be reasoned away, an instinct that predates civilization. The humanity of Spirit Cave Man’s people, whoever they were, is apparent in the care with which he was interred, the placement of his bones, the meticulous twining of fibers in his burial blanket. It’s all too easy to imagine a igrief-stricken parent, a bereft child, a sorrowful widow—a culture that honored its dead, just as ours does. Anthropologists have challenged the repatriation of Kennewick Man in court, and requests for DNA testing of Spirit Cave Man, protested by the northern Paiute, await a decision by the federal Bureau of Land Management. At least one ancient American, 10,700-year-old Buhl Woman of Idaho, has already been rebur­ied. Meanwhile, Kennewick Man resides at the Burke Museum in Seattle, and Spirit Cave Man is stranded on his platform in ’ Nevada. Scientists can’t do tests on Spirit Cave Man, the Paiute tribes can’t rebury him and, because state law forbids the display of human remains, museum visi­tors can’t see him, either. This purgatory is the most ignoble fate that could befall a body. Out of respect for death and unan­swerable questions, both sides in the custody battle should lay down their banners of faith and reason, find a swift resolution to their differences and return these people to the past. ? 3 1