NOTE: If this is the first Musing that you've received in a while, please check to see if they've been going to spam. They are usually sent from jvogelgesang@woodmemoriallibrary.org. You may need to add that email address to your contacts.

September 15, 2023

Museum Repatriation, Part 2

From Executive Director Carolyn Venne - Please note that I include pictures of human remains below.

The History of Human Remains in Museums

Last week I introduced the debated topic of cultural repatriation, when museums or universities are asked to return art or antiquities to their original owners or countries. Many of these contested objects were "collected" during pursuits of colonialism and an 18th century "burgeoning Western fascination with antiquity" (Lesko). This included human remains of all kinds.

Of course, the most prominent form of human remains in museums is that of the mummy. At the height of the Victorian era, the west was so fascinated by mummies that "unwrapping parties" would be held, with "Egyptomania" influencing everything from jewelry to architecture.

Some of the practicalities of collecting, studying and displaying human remains in museums were for scientific, historical and anthropological pursuits, such as examining evolution and disease or providing a look at cultural and funerary practices.

“Examination of a Mummy – The Priestess of Ammon” Oil on canvas, Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, 1891. This painting depicts a real historical event. Present and depicted is a French doctor and Egyptian collector based in Cairo (center), the leader of the archaeological expedition and several museum curators.

The Study of Skulls and Brains

But there was also a dark side to the collection of human remains. One example took place in the 1830s and 1840s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Physician Samuel G. Morton collected and studied more than 1,300 human skulls from all over the world in order to test his theory

of European (white) superiority over other races. It is likely that some of the individuals were enslaved African Americans. Held originally at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia since 1851, the Morton Cranial Collection was moved to the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (the Penn Museum) in 1966. In 2021, the Penn Museum announced its intent to repatriate the collection.

For curator and anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka at the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History), it was both skulls and brains that were collected over several decades for the same purpose as Morton.

The Morton Cranial Collection at the Penn Museum, where skulls were meticulously labeled with numbers and other identifiers for study. Photo by John Biewen.

Gebelein Man and Museum Guidance in the UK

I took the picture below of "Gebelein Man" in room 64 of the British Museum this summer. For a better image, click here. He is one of six naturally mummified human remains excavated at the end of the nineteenth century by the British Museum Keeper for Egyptology.

Gebelein Man is one of the best-preserved set of human remains from ancient Egypt, having been buried in hot, dry sand. In fact, both the British Museum's curators and the public widely referred to him as "Ginger" due to the reddish hair still visibly attached to his skull.

But the funny nickname disappeared after the UK Parliament's Human Tissue Act of 2004. While the Act was largely the result of a high-profile case which dealt with the proper care of organs in hospitals, it led to

Gebelein Man lived around 3500 BC along the Nile River, about 300 miles south of Cairo. CT scans in 2012 revealed that he stood 5 feet 3 inches tall, was muscular and had healthy teeth. The scans also determined his cause of death - he was around 21 years of age when he died of a single stab wound in the back.

detailed Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums in 2005. As a result, human remains are no longer treated as regular museum objects in the UK and the guidance calls for a high degree of care, dignity and respect.

Moreover, section 47 of the Human Tissue Act provided nine British institutions the ability to deaccession (remove from collections) the remains of those who are believed to have died less than 1,000 years ago. (An important provision because deaccessioning was largely outlawed with the British Museum Act of 1963, which today several museums are choosing to ignore amid calls for the return of highly contested cultural objects, like the Benin Bronzes.)

NAGPRA and Other Legislation

Ultimately, the 2005 UK guidance leaves the decision making of repatriating human remains to each institution on a case by case basis. Similarly, the Australian government supports the voluntary repatriation of ancestral remains and "secret sacred objects" of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. New Zealand's government-funded program only

helps to negotiate repatriation on behalf of its Māori and Moriori people.

But in the United States, any institution that receives federal funds, even indirectly, must repatriate Native American human remains, funerary objects (also known as grave goods, possessions buried with a body to help them transition to the afterlife) and other sacred objects - or face consequences. This has been the case since 1990 with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Canada does not have any Indigenous repatriation legislation.

A 2012 ceremony in which 20 mummified Māori heads, part of a tradition to preserve loved ones, were repatriated from France to New Zealand. Getty Images

For Further Reading

Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested.

Our Contact Information
*{{Organization Name}}*
*{{Organization Address}}*
*{{Organization Phone}}*
*{{Organization Website}}*

*{{Unsubscribe}}*

Do you enjoy our Musings from Main email series? If so, please consider showing your support by making a donation using the button below.

I Support the Musings!