--- Timothy McShane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> No where is there mention of how many sets of remains have lain for
> decades, even centuries, in museum collections and have never been
> studied, and for which there are no plans to research.  Nor is there
> reference to the lack of resources to possibly study all human remains
> currently held by museums around the world.

But how many of us have had things in our collections that have lain untouched
for decades and either got funding to study them or happened to be connected to
other collections down the road? While I don't agree that museums should
collect stuff just to have stuff, I don't think it's right to say that things
should be "cleared out" in one way or another just because it hasn't been
touched in years. And a museum might not have plans to do research, but a grad
student or independent researcher may want to study it in the years to come.

> It's the same with the returning of
> human remains that had be collected without consent.  It has nothing to
> do with abrogation of museum responsibility, or the rise of "aboriginal
> mysticism," or any other such nonsense--pure and simple, it's respect
> for the proper way to do things.

But the key in this article is the question of "who is related" and "how long
does that go back"? If I read it correctly, not only could direct decendants
claim ownership of human remains (and if the recommendation is to go back to
1500, that could mean hundreds if not thousands of people), but people who are
also of the same belief or cultural association. That would mean that I, as a
Quaker, could claim the remains of early Quakers who I'm probably not the least
bit related to.

And not to open a can of worms, but here in America, I get really irked about
Native Americans laying claim to anything Native American. Obviously, artifacts
and remains from the existing tribes should be returned if requested but
there's a lot of controversary over items and remains from tribes that haven't
been around for hundreds or thousands of years. Granted, Native Americans today
are the decendants of these tribes but how far back do you go to make a claim
of direct decendant? Since my family was originally from England, could I make
a claim on one of the bog men or even Viking remains that were found in
England?

Another example of "mass repatriation" that irked me: One archaeology day at my
university in Virginia, a man came in with a box of artifacts that he had
bought off of a Navajo man out West. He said that this Navajo was sitting by
the side of the road selling things and he bought this box of miscellaneous
artifacts which were mainly projectile points and pottery shards, all of which
were probably picked up willy nilly off the ground for anyone to find. There
was a local Virginia Native American lady also at the archaeology day who took
a great interest in this box of "stuff" and strongly suggested that this man
turn it over to the local tribes to be reburried. Now wait a minute, this man
had bought these artifacts legitmately from a Native American, who was from a
tribe all the way across the country that had no relation to the local tribes
in Virginia. What right did the local Native American lady have to suggest that
he couldn't have Native American artifacts that were acquired in a legitimate
way from another Native American of a completely different tribe?

So while I'm very supportive of returning artifacts and remains to their owners
or cultures if they were acquired in a less than scrupulous way (Nazi loot from
WWII for example), I fear that people are going overboard with this and being
"cultural elitists" by saying that no one outside of an ethnic or cultural
group can own anything from a group that is not their own.

Deb

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