American Museum of Natural History to Remove Bones of Native Americans and Slaves

[Keyser_Soze]

Natural History Museum vows better stewardship of human bones

WWW.NPR.ORG

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New York's American Museum of Natural History plans to improve its stewardship of thousands of human remains in its collection, which includes the bones of Native Americans and enslaved Black people.

 

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For decades, museums used human remains for scientific research. Erin Thompson, professor of art crime at John Jay College of the City University of New York, said that this research is rooted in racism.

 

"They were looking for physical proof of the superiority of white people and they didn't find it, but that meant they just kept looking," she said.

 

Museums have been historically unethical in how and why they collected human remains. Researchers dug up sacred burial sites, for example, and accepted skeletons from private collections without requesting permission from family members.

 

In a recent statement to museum staff shared with NPR, Decatur, president of the museum, acknowledged the troubled history of the bones and items made from human bone, some of which were displayed for the public and others which were kept in storage for research purposes. "Human remains collections were made possible by extreme imbalances of power," he wrote. He referred to some research as "deeply flawed scientific agendas rooted in white supremacy."

 

Decatur said that the museum is making "concrete changes" using "a new ethical framework." The museum will remove all public displays of human remains and "make sure that we have the staffing and support in place to have a full accounting for our holdings, as well as supporting [their] return and repatriation," he said.

 

[UpvoteShittyTakesOnly]

western museums are ethical messes on a million fronts but you gotta start somewhere i guess 

[TUFKAK]

This is one of those stories my initial response is “good.” Then I think about it and wonder how this wasn’t already done.

[LazyPiranha]

Museums, like libraries, to some are sacrosanct.  Indiana Jones is considered the good guy for stealing shit because it belongs in a museum.  Most people didn’t know or didn’t care how the sausage was made.  There was a while back in high school where I thought it would be cool to own a real human skull and I would look up places and how much they cost, etc.  Never once did it cross my mind that it was highly unlikely whoever’s skull was for sale knowingly offered it up before they died, and once that option is off the table there’s really no good ones left.  
 

 

[Jason]

On 10/21/2023 at 8:24 PM, LazyPiranha said:

Museums, like libraries, to some are sacrosanct.  Indiana Jones is considered the good guy for stealing shit because it belongs in a museum.  Most people didn’t know or didn’t care how the sausage was made.  There was a while back in high school where I thought it would be cool to own a real human skull and I would look up places and how much they cost, etc.  Never once did it cross my mind that it was highly unlikely whoever’s skull was for sale knowingly offered it up before they died, and once that option is off the table there’s really no good ones left.