Museum Practice and the Display of Human Remains

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hedley Swain
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Leonardo Da Vinci ◽  
Western World ◽  
Egyptian Mummy ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Accepted Practice ◽  
Public Museums ◽  
Museum Practice

Visitors to the Lawrence Room, Girton College, Cambridge University, on Thursday afternoons (when the small one room museum is open to the public) will find a dead body on display. The body is that of an Egyptian mummy from the Coptic period with a painted face mask and inscription ‘Hermione Grammatike’. It was this inscription that attracted Girton College to acquire this ancient body. A loose translation suggests this was a woman scholar, and therefore the first recorded woman scholar in history and as such an appropriate ‘mascot’ for one of the early great champions for formal female education. The mummy was purchased from Egyptologist Flinders Petrie who had excavated it in 1910–11 (Imogen Gunn and Dorothy Thompson, pers. comm.). The case of Hermione is both particular and general. Across all of the UK and indeed the Western world, human remains from all ages and all parts of the world can be found in all types of museums of all sizes apparently isolated and insulated from society’s normal relationships with the dead: grief, morbidity, respect, invisibility. Context would appear to be everything in terms of attitudes to the display of the human dead. This paper reviews this concept of context, and offers some commentary on the origins, constraints, and boundaries for the display of human remains. To begin with an Egyptian mummy as an example is also appropriate, as this particular category has an almost ubiquitous and overpowering place in Western museums. It has been accepted practice to include human remains in displays since the widespread establishment of public museums in the nineteenth century. These are normally associated with archaeological discoveries but can also be found in physical and social anthropological displays, medical and history of medicine displays, and occasionally in other contexts. Museum practice is very much a creation of Western, primarily Enlightenment, values and the inclusion of human remains in displays can be traced in these values (for example, the anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and the public anatomy demonstrations of the nascent Royal Society in London) and in the Christian European culture from which this derived (for example, the display in churches of saints’ relics: Weiss-Krejci this volume).

scholarly journals The Repatriation of Human Remains in France: 20 Years of (Mal)practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 313-338
Author(s):  
Sophie Vigneron
Keyword(s):  
New Caledonia ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Institutional Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Structural Support ◽  
Saartjie Baartman ◽  
Legal Difficulties ◽  
Public Museums ◽  
Public Museum

This article analyses three cases of repatriation of human remains by French public museums in order to critically examine the difficulties in the changing institutional practice. It critically ssesses the statutory and administrative processes that have been used to repatriate human remains and identifies the difficulties that have been and are mostly still encountered. Firstly, it evaluates the public/private conundrum of ownership of human remains in French law, which explains why Parliament had to intervene to facilitate the repatriation of remains in public museum collections, whereas a private society could repatriate the skulls of chief Ataï and his doctor to New Caledonia without legal difficulties. Secondly, it reviews the need for parliamentary intervention for the repatriation of the remains of Saartjie Baartman to South Africa and several Mokomokai to New Zealand. Finally, it criticizes the administrative deadlock that has prevented the development of a repatriation practice that could have b en established after the successful repatriation of the remains of Vamaica Peru to Uruguay. Unfortunately, the process has remained opaque and ineffective, owing to a variety of factors; in particular the ambiguity regarding the role of the Commission scientifique nationale des collections, which is set to be abolished and whose role will be undertaken by the Haut conseil des Musées de France, and a lack of political, financial, and structural support from the Ministry of Culture. Until these shortcomings are addressed and clear criteria for repatriation are drawn up, it is unlikely that France will develop a coherent, transparent, and effective process for the repatriation of human remains.

Talk like an Egyptian? Epistemological problems with the synthesis of a vocal sound from the mummified remains of Nesyamun and racial designations in mummy studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Uroš Matić
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
General State ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Egyptian Mummy ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media

AbstractThe paper examines epistemological problems behind a recent study claiming to provide a synthesis of a vocal sound from the mummified remains of a man named Nesyamun and behind racial designations in Egyptian mummy studies more generally. So far, responses in the media and academia concentrated on the ethical problems of these studies, whereas their theoretical and methodological backgrounds have been rarely addressed or mentioned only in passing. It seems that the media reaction has targeted the synthesis of a sound rather than other, equally problematic, assumptions found in Egyptian mummy studies. By focusing on the epistemological problems, it will be demonstrated that the issues of greatest concern are endemic to a general state of a considerable part of the discipline of Egyptology and its unreflective engagement with the material remains of the past, especially human remains.

scholarly journals “GOOD EVENING TO YOU, LADY OF THE HOUSE”: CONSIDERACIONES SOBRE EL PRINCIPIO DE CORTESÍA EN EL TEATRO DE J.M. SYNGE

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Encarnación Hidalgo Tenorio
Keyword(s):  
Western World ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Irish Theatre ◽  
Role Construction ◽  
Irish Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Abbey Theatre ◽  
The Press ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Literary Figure

ResumenEn el ámbito de los estudios irlandeses se ha estudiado con profusión el inesperado fracaso del fenómeno teatral encabezado por W.B. Yeats y en el que John Millington Synge se llevó la peor de las partes. La subversión que sus personajes implicaban a todos los niveles explica el rechazo de los mismos por parte del público que acudía en masa al Abbey Theatre solo para silbar y patalear durante alguna de sus representaciones (Kilroy 1971). Un análisis detallado de la forma en la que hace que se expresen apunta en esta dirección. La incorrección verbal es una seña característica del teatro de esta figura clave de la literatura irlandesa. Partiendo de ahí, en el presente trabajo se aplica el principio de cortesía lingüística (Brown y Levinson 1987) a tres de las obras más destacadas de este dramaturgo: In the Shadow of the Glen, The Tinker’s Wedding y The Well of the Saints. Con la intención de refutar los resultados de trabajos anteriores (Hidalgo-Tenorio 1999) y demostrar la validez de este modelo en la investigación de textos de ficción, se comprueba que esas mujeres, que rompen con la norma social y conversacional una y otra vez, en casos muy excepcionales hacen un uso magistral de todas las estrategias posibles de cortesía. Las razones son tan diversas como las que se darían en cualquier transacción conversacional del mundo real. Este artículo se proponer desgranarlas como uno de sus objetivos.Palabras clave: Pragmática, principio de cortesía, género, teatro irlandés, J.M. Synge.English title: “Good Evening to You, Lady of the House”: Considerations on the Politeness Principle in J.M. Synge’s DramaAbstract: In the field of Irish studies, scholars have considered extensively the failure of the theatrical experience led by W.B. Yeats and J.M. Synge, who bore the brunt of popular criticism. The subversion embodied in Synge’s characters explains their rejection by the public, who flocked to the Abbey Theatre just to whistle and stamp their feet during some of his performances. One in January 1907 caused a particularly furious reaction from the press and political nationalists (Kilroy 1971). Since verbal impropriety (Bousfield and Locher 2008, Culpeper 2011) is their most outstanding characteristic, the analysis of how this major literary figure makes them express themselves can shed light on a phenomenon of much sociological relevance. Accordingly, here I apply the politeness principle (Brown and Levinson 1978, 1987) to four of his most well-known plays: The Well of the Saints, The Tinker’s Wedding, In the Shadow of the Glen and The Playboy of the Western World. Apart from demonstrating the validity of this model in the exploration of fiction, I will show that those women, who regularly break social and conversational norms, make use of all politeness strategies in very exceptional cases. The reasons are as diverse as those articulated in any real-world transaction, and this article aims to disentangle them. Thus, it will be easier to tackle the issue of gender role construction (Holmes 1995, Weatherall 2002, Litoselitti 2006), which is definitely one of the grounds on which Dublin’s dismissal of the Irish Dramatic Movement was based (Hidalgo-Tenorio 1999).Keywords: Pragmatics, politeness theory, gender, Irish Theatre, J.M. Synge.

scholarly journals Heritage digitization. Are there common practices and common reasons?

1970 ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Bengt Wittgren
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Heritage ◽  
Common Practices ◽  
Public Museums

The article will examine the digitization of heritage and use of digital heritage within the civil society in Sweden. Three parties: Swedish local heritage communities, Swedish handicraft societies and the Sami community will be in focus. Are there intersections and gaps in linked, shared and networked cultural heritage between these parties and the public museums? Who have the preferential rights of interpretation? What are selected for digitization and why?

scholarly journals Repatriation in Practice: A Critical Analysis of the Repatriation of Human Remains in New Zealand Museums

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Coralie O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Museum Staff ◽  
Museum Practice

<p>The repatriation of human remains from museum collections is becoming increasingly common in museums around the world and particularly in New Zealand. Even the most amicable repatriation cases are complex, requiring a substantial commitment of time, energy and resources from museum staff involved in the negotiation process, to successfully overcome any issues that arise. Although it is known that the repatriation process can be challenging, the literature on the subject in museum studies and related fields focuses on the beneficial outcomes of successful negotiations, rather than explaining what difficulties can be encountered and how they can be solved. This research asks how problems in the repatriation process can be overcome to create mutually rewarding relationships between museums and others involved in the repatriation of human remains. This problem was addressed through a case study of the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme at Te Papa and three examples of their work: the Natural History Museum in Rouen, France; the British Museum in London; and the Rangitāne o Wairau iwi in New Zealand. Documentary evidence relating to these three repatriation examples was reviewed and the insights of museum staff have been captured through interviews with professionals from Karanga Aotearoa, Auckland Museum and Tairāwhiti Museum in Gisborne. Together these methods provided data that presented a more detailed and rounded picture of the current New Zealand situation regarding the repatriation of human remains. The dissertation concludes by assessing the difficulties in the practical repatriation process and how they have been overcome in New Zealand museums. I argue that repatriation practice, as an important area of museum practice in its own right, requires a flexible approach based on the principle of open-minded engagement with the perspectives of others involved in repatriation negotiations. This approach, focusing on relationships rather than transactions, is a marked departure from more traditional museum practice.</p>

scholarly journals Legislative regulation of museums activity in the Second Rzechpospolita Polska

2020 ◽  
pp. 38-41
Author(s):  
Nataliia Zakharchyn
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
State Council ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legislative Proposal ◽  
Catalytic Role ◽  
Public Museums ◽  
Draft Bill ◽  
And Control ◽  
Law Making ◽  
Public Museum

The article considers the creation of the legislative basis regarding the museums’ activity in interwar (1918-1939) Poland. Temporary organization of common government authorities in 1918 suggested subordination of museums of interwar Poland to the Ministry of religion andpopular education. It also describes changes in subordination of the museums and some features of law-making process. In April 1918, the Department of Art of the Ministry processed and offered the first project of temporary law on museums. According to the legislative proposal, state politics in the museum industry had to be implementedusing the special museum abstract within Department of Art. In the draft, there were a few types of museum identified: the main ones (national) and regional, educational and special. It was necessary to legislate on determining andidentifying main directions of the activity, to organizationally form the framework of their functioning, for the sake of museum professional work activization, controlling their activity, help with creation of new collections and support of some old ones. It is stated that his fact was understood by the representatives of the organizations that were either connected to museum industry or played a catalytic role in museum reforms in the interwar period, for instance, The Union of Museums of Poland.It was the Union that the draft law “Onthe trusteeship for the public museums” was prepared by. Apart from the draft law, the project of the implementing regulation to the bill regarding establishment and activity of the Museum State Council was adopted. In the article, the process of establishing the draft law is considered. The article reflects the representation of modified law “On the trusteeship for the public museums” in the Parliament of Second Rzechpospolita Polska. In the parliament, the draft bill was considered as a framework, which determines the concept of a public museum. According to the bill, Minister of religion and education implemented the trusteeship and control of the activity of the public museums and approved theirstatutes. The articlealso reviews the aims and tasks of the adopted law and further implementing regulations, particularly, on the establishment of Museum State Council.

scholarly journals Draft Law to Create the Green Card and Responses / Yet Another Modest Proposal

1970 ◽  
pp. 83-90
Author(s):  
Lebanese American University ◽  
Brian Prescott-Decie
Keyword(s):  
Jonathan Swift ◽  
Western World ◽  
Poor People ◽  
The Public ◽  
Green Card ◽  
Modest Proposal ◽  
The Usa ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Nationality Law ◽  
Member Of Parliament

Draft Law to Create the Green CardThe following article is the translated text of the Green Card draft law endorsed by Member of Parliament Neematallah Abi Nasr and submitted to the Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar for review. Yet Another Modest ProposalWhen Jonathan Swift published his satirical essay “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public” in 1729, he little knew that he was starting a chain of events that would in time become a common pastime – the writing of “Modest Proposals” on a vast range of subjects. Member of Parliament Neematallah Abi Nasr recently offered his own “modest proposal” with regard to the issue of Nationality Law in Lebanon, to wit that the state should offer the families of Lebanese women a Green Card similarto the system normally practiced in the USA and elsewhere in the western world.

Should parents shiver?

1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-44
Author(s):  
Chris Goddard
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Western World ◽  
World Views ◽  
The Public ◽  
Culture Of Fear ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports

According to at least one author, our lives are increasingly dominated by a ‘culture of fear’, in which possible adverse outcomes dominate our world views. Throughout the Western world, awareness of child sexual abuse has led to action by members of the public to draw attention to horrific crimes against children. This article reviews some of the media reports and seeks to explain why so many are concerned by those that prey on children.

To Gaze Upon the Dead: The Exhibition of Human Remains as Cultural Practice and Political Process in Scandinavia and the USA

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liv Nilsson Stutz
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Small Hand ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Dead

The clattering sound of a child’s shoes across the cold stone floors; the echo is magnificent. I am nine or ten years old and I make my way through the prehistoric exhibition at the National Museum in Copenhagen. The dimly lit display cases are filled with arrowheads, heavy beads of perforated amber, funnel beakers, and bronze artefacts. I reach my goal, the alluring Bronze Age oak cists where the buried men and women from the heaths of Jutland are looking back at me. I touch the glass. My eyes wander over their reddened hair and their clothes, stained in deep shades of peat brown. My eyes seek theirs in the hollow orbits of their skulls. I close mine and imagine a life thousands of years ago. My small hand moves across the glass, leaving an almost invisible trace. Small fingerprints; a dreaming child’s gesture. I would stay there forever, dreaming of the past. Feeling it. I know that it was moments like this, when I could see and feel the humanity of the past that made me want to become an archaeologist. The immediate encounter with an individual from the past is a privileged moment. For a brief moment our destinies cross paths, and hundreds, even thousands of years are transcended. Scenes like this one, of children gazing at the dead and seeing the past, are not unusual. In museums across Europe, the archaeological findings from burials, including both the human remains and the items that accompanied the dead, are often displayed with pride and confidence. The public expects this and is drawn in with fascination to stand face-to-face with the deep past. Beyond this, the display of the dead and of death itself, with all of the allure and drama that accompany it, becomes a privileged locus for pedagogy and communication. But while this confident attitude towards the display of the dead may be typical in Europe, it is not as evident in North America. In North American museums, it is rare to see human remains from archaeological contexts displayed in any form (exception seems to be given to Egyptian mummies, which still are prominently displayed by many institutions that have them among their collections).

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Olivier Roy
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Cultural Terms ◽  
Treaty Of Rome ◽  
The Public Sphere

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the debate over Europe's Christian identity. Since the Treaty of Rome, there have been two significant developments for Christianity in Europe. First, secularization has given way to the large-scale dechristianization of European societies in both religious and cultural terms, especially from the protests of 1968 onwards. Second, Islam has arrived in Europe, through immigration and, with Turkey's application for membership of the EU, the proposed expansion of the continent's borders. Thus, the debate over Europe's Christian identity does not rest on a binary opposition between Europe and Islam, but on a triangle whose three poles are: (1) the Christian religion; (2) Europe's secular values (even if they occasionally make reference to a Christian identity); (3) Islam as a religion. However, the debate over Islam are much deeper questions about the very nature of Europe and its relationship to religion in general. The notion that Europe would be fine if only Islam or immigration did not exist is, of course, an illusion. There is a serious crisis surrounding European identity and the place of religion in the public sphere, as can be seen both in Christian radicalization over the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, and in secular radicalization over religious slaughter and circumcision. This is nothing short of a crisis in European culture.

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