Past Events
- Institute of Ideas and the Royal College of Physicians present
- Human Remains: objects to study or ancestors to bury?
- Venue: Royal College of Physicians, London
- Date: May 2, 2003
Transcripts available:
Museums have always contained collections of human remains, from ancient mummies to shrunken heads, but now ethical battles rage about 'who owns the bones'. A DCMS committee looks set to suggest they are sent back to source communities. Are these bones really the property of long distant relatives, or the scholarly responsibility of curators and scientists? Will sending the skeletons back bring healing to abused and spiritually broken peoples? Or are museums and scientific institutions surrendering invaluable artefacts and sacrificing greater knowledge of humanity that we have a responsibility to honour?
Speakers:
- Jane Hubert
- co-editor, The Dead and their Possessions: repatriation in principle, policy and practice
- Robert Foley
- director of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Cambridge
- Sebastian Payne
- Chief Scientist, English Heritage
- Tristram Besterman
- director, Manchester Museum
Chaired by
- Tiffany Jenkins
- Institute of Ideas