scholarly journals Healing through Heritage?

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-133
Author(s):  
Carsten Wergin
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Museums ◽  
Provenance Research

This Forum contribution builds on the ethnographic engagement with restitution projects as places of transcultural encounter. Based on data collected in 2019 during repatriation ceremonies in Berlin and Leipzig, I show how a responsibility for human remains that was shared between European museums and Australian Indigenous custodians set in motion processes of healing, both among Indigenous groups and those working with these collections in Europe. I further argue that ethnographic museums change in these processes from supposedly passive exhibition spaces to spaces of socio-critical engagement. Finally, I explore the decolonial potential of such collaborative engagements with heritage within and beyond European borders that are motivated by provenance research and repatriation practices.

A Perspective on Ethics and the Reburial Controversy

1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Klesert ◽  
Shirley Powell
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Professional Ethic ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Right Of Access ◽  
Proper Context ◽  
Grave Goods

It is our opinion that archaeologists have no inherent right of access to human remains, grave goods, or objects of cultural heritage; that respecting diverse cultural views does not amount to an abdication of academic freedom; that historically archaeologists have been unanthropological in their approach to living populations and inconsistent in their treatment of indigenous peoples; and that archaeologists are fighting a losing battle when they ignore public opinion and clash with indigenous groups in the name of science. We offer some guidelines that we feel will alleviate much of the current tensions between archaeologists and indigenous peoples. A professional ethic must be devised that is consciously anthropological, values the rights of those studied and their cultural descendants in their own terms, and places academic pursuits in their proper context.

scholarly journals Imperial skulduggery, science and the issue of provenance and restitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhart Kößler
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
South West ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Provenance Research

This article explores the history of the Alexander Ecker Collection and situates it within the larger trajectory of global collecting of human remains during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is then linked to the specific context of the genocide in then German South West Africa (1904–8), with the central figure of Eugen Fischer. The later trajectory of the collection leads up to the current issues of restitution. The Freiburg case is instructive since it raises issues about the possibilities and limitations of provenance research. At the same time, the actual restitution of fourteen human remains in 2014 occurred in a way that sparked serious conflict in Namibia which is still on-going four years later. In closing, exigencies as well as pressing needs in connection with the repatriation and (where possible) rehumanisation of human remains are discussed.

scholarly journals Skulls and skeletons from Namibia in Berlin

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Holger Stoecker ◽  
Andreas Winkelmann
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
South West ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Provenance Research

From 2010 to 2013 the Charité Human Remains Project researched the provenance of the remains of fifty-seven men and women from the then colony of German South West Africa. They were collected during German colonial rule, especially but not only during the colonial war 1904–8. The remains were identified in anthropological collections of academic institutions in Berlin. The article describes the history of these collections, the aims, methods and interdisciplinary format of provenance research as well as its results and finally the restitutions of the remains to Namibia in 2011 and 2014.

scholarly journals Sensitive Heritage: Ethnographic Museums, Provenance Research, and the Potentialities of Restitutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Philipp Schorch
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The People ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Museums ◽  
Provenance Research ◽  
Further Development

This introduction lays out this special issue, which juxtaposes articles on approaches to provenance research, conducted at German museum and university institutions, with articles on past, present and future potentialities of restitutions to originating societies in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Namibia. In doing so, the issue makes the argument that provenance research and processes of restitution, and their underlying ethical and sensitive considerations, generate, rather than restrict, new knowledge. They are brimming with epistemic and ontological potentialities: for the people related to the material entities concerned, for the (anthropological) knowledge about them, and for the institutions involved. The ultimate goal pursued is the establishment and further development of provenance research and processes of restitution as ethnographic work and an integral dimension of ethnographic museums in the 21st century.

scholarly journals Repatriations of human remains from Germany – 1911 to 2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-51
Author(s):  
Andreas Winkelmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Provenance Research

While occasional earlier restitutions of colonially acquired human remains, mostly skulls, from German anthropological collections to source communities went largely unnoticed, it seems that such repatriations have 'taken off' since the hand-over of 20 skulls to a Namibian delegation in 2011. It is, however, difficult to get a comprehensive overview of these events, given the German federal system and the diversity of institutions involved. Moreover, there is no standard as to how much provenance research should be conducted before returning human remains and how much detail should be published, if at all. This article reviews repatriations of human remains from German institutions and related publications. It argues for authors and institutions to publish and publicize these events and related research more widely. It also looks at the variability of the political context of these processes and argues for more direct, i.e. government-independent contacts between collecting institutions and source communities.

Human Remains

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains

Collective Memory, Personal Pain: The Circulation of 9/11 Unidentified Human Remains

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh ◽  
Ventura Perez ◽  
Heidi Bauer-Clapp
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Human Remains

Health and Health Care Problems Among the Kumiai of San Antonio Necua and Their Indigenous Relatives in Baja California

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Jill Fleuriet
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Baja California ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Medical Pluralism ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Care Problems

The rural Kumiai community of San Antonio Necua is one of the few remaining indigenous communities in Baja California, Mexico. Necuan health and health care problems are best understood through a consideration of the effects of colonialism and marginalization on indigenous groups in northern Baja California as well as a tradition of medical pluralism in Mexico. The lack of traditional healers and biomedical providers in the community, high rates of preventable or manageable illnesses, and a blend of biomedical, folk mestizo, and traditional indigenous beliefs about health and illness reflect current conditions of rural poverty and economic isolation. Descriptions of health and health care problems are based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Kumiai, their Paipai relatives, and their primary nongovernmental aid organization.

Three Cists from Tayvallich, Argyll

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lehane
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains

Summary Three cists were discovered during the rebuilding of a house in Tayvallich. They appear to have been inserted into a roughly oval pit. All three cists contained cremated human remains and Cist 3 also contained a food vessel with beaker affinities. Lithics from among the cairn material appear to be a redeposited Mesolithic assemblage.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document