'Apewoman'
to Leave Norway
for
Mexico Burial
The remains of Julia
Pastrana, the so-called 19th century "apewoman", are set
to be returned by Oslo University to Mexico where she
will finally be laid to rest.
152 years
after her death in Moscow the remains of the woman which
have been kept for research purposes in Norway since the
1920s will be returned to the country of her birth,
according to a letter from the university to the
ministry of education published in the Uniforum journal
on Thursday.
Julia
Pastrana was
born in 1834 in
Sinaloa, Mexico
with the disease
hypertrichosis terminalis.
It meant that
she had
strong hair growth
in both the
face and the rest
of the body and
an oversized
jaw.
Charles
Darwin described her as "Julia Pastrana, a Spanish
dancer, was a remarkably fine woman, but she had a thick
masculine beard and a hairy forehead... and her face had
a gorilla-like appearance".
Her unusual appearance
meant that she was in demand at markets and circuses and
she was exhibited as a hybrid between ape and a human
and was also at times known as "Bear Woman".
Pastrana died aged
only 26 on tour in Moscow in 1860, 3 days after giving
birth to a child with a similar appearance. She had
previously married circus director Theodore Lent and
after her death Lent contacted Moscow University to have
his wife mummified, displaying her in a glass cabinet
for the remaider of the tour.
In 1921
Norwegian
carnival owner
Earl Jaeger
Lund bought
her remains, and until the
1950s, they were shown
at the
Lund
amusement park. After a public outcry following the
announcement of a proposed tour of the USA, the exhibit
was finally removed from display.
The remains were
eventually
stolen from a warehouse in
Groruddalen in August 1979,
before they later
ended up at
the University of
Oslo. The remains have rested in a
sealed coffin at the Department of Anatomy in Oslo since
1997.
In June 2012 the
National Commission
for research on
human remains
recommended that the woman
should be returned to her
homeland Mexico for burial. It is
unclear when the funeral
can take place,
but it's going
to happen as
soon as scientific tests have
been taken, according to
Uniforum.
The Local
Norway News in England Aug 3, 2012
