Dead bodies: The changing treatment of human remains in British museum collections and the challenge to the traditional model of the museum

Jenkins, Tiffany

doi:10.1080/13576270801954419

Cited by 29 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Many of these collections have been secreted away or are restricted to the public. Some have been more recently destroyed, legally disputed, or repatriated when found to be of Indigenous origin (see Nelkin and Andrews 1998;Jenkins 2008;Hoffman 2010). Many more collections are opened to the public for education and entertainment, and are the sources of props for fashion shoots, art shows, books, and calendars.…”

Section: Cadaver Synodmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Institutional Bodies: Spatial Agency and the Dead

Nafte¹

2015

History and Anthropology

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In this paper, I argue that the Catholic Church and Western medicine assumed historically significant roles in the use and circulation of human remains and, in so doing, established distinct traditions of dissection, preservation, and display. Furthermore, both institutions still maintain an essential role in making human remains ever more popular and culturally acceptable. The Church and Western medicine uphold various means of interaction that effectively keep the dead undisposed for specific purposes: as forms of cultural capital, objects of veneration, and fetishized, or aestheticized diversion. As such, the institutionalized dead have come to inhabit very particular spaces where they are made to perform a variety of duties for the living.Two seemingly opposed institutions in Western society have each contributed to the use of human remains as material culture. These institutions are the Roman Catholic Church, with its rich tradition of making and displaying relics, and the field of medicine in its creation and promotion of anatomical specimens. Both establishments, sanctioned by and representing powerful forms of authority, have been processing and displaying the dead human body over as many centuries as they have been active. But rather than representing two separate and distinct philosophies with respect to the human body, the Catholic Church and Western medicine have each promoted and established a very similar type of commodification and commercial aesthetic of the cadaver. Both have also created forms of spatial agency around the dismemberment Correspondence to: Myriam Nafte, Anthropology, McMaster University,

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Section: Cadaver Synodmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Except for cases when remains are identified as Native or Aboriginal (see Jenkins 2008), or when their ownership is contested (see Nelkin and Andrews 1998), the vast majority of them remain part of what are considered important historical collections.…”

Section: History and Anthropology 227mentioning

confidence: 98%

Institutional Bodies: Spatial Agency and the Dead

Nafte¹

2015

History and Anthropology

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“…be the result of a post-mortem taphonomic process on the bone (Niinimäki et al 2010). The displaying and studying of human remains has been the focus of a quite involved academic discussion (Ubelaker & Guttenplan Grant 1989;Klesert & Powell 1993;Jenkins 2008;Jenkins 2010;Svestad 2013) but it is interesting to note that this case has not led to debates among museum visitors. It should also be noted that in some cases, the reluctance to display human remains may be more of an academic concern than a reflection of the wishes of the locals (see e.g.…”

Section: Burialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion of the past or living heritage?

Äikäs

2020

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In recent years we have witnessed a growing contemporary use of Sámi offering places by various actors, for example tourists, the local population and contemporary pagans. Hence, sites that the heritage authorities and researchers have seen as belonging to the past have gained new relevance. Nevertheless, Sámi religion is often presented in museums in relation to history and prehistory. Sámi culture has been presented in museums and exhibitions since the nineteenth century. In pointing out that this long history of museum displays affects how Sámi culture is presented in contemporary museums, Nika Potinkara (2015:41) suggests that we can renew, comment on or question the old presentations. This article explores the representations of Sámi religion in four museums and exhibitions in Northern Finland, and will answer the following research question: How is Sámi religion presented and what kind of themes are present? Here museums are studied as arenas for the dissemination of results of knowledge production. What kind of image of Sámi religion do they share?

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“…Second and more important, however, this particular excavation was organized at the instigation of The Richard III Society. Whereas early debates about reburial of the ancient dead pitted scientific archaeology against the identity politics of aboriginal groups (Fforde 2004), followed by an alliance between postmodern museum curation and the identity politics of Paganism (Jenkins 2008), the Leicester 'find' resulted from an alliance between archaeology and, not identity politics, but (Gray et al 2007) modern-day fandom in the form of the Richard III Society -Richard's fan club. Many of the Society's 3500 members would quickly have become aware of this news story, and very likely contributed a proportion of the several hundred comments and several thousand ratings.…”

Section: Analysis Of Online Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of recent events inside and outside of the heritage sector have triggered a lively and largely constructive debate about the excavation, display and conservation of human remains in the UK (see Sayer 2009Sayer , 2010aMoshenska 2009;Parker Pearson et al 2011;Jenkins 2008Jenkins , 2010Giesen 2013). Two events have been of particular significance: the reburial of human remains prompted by requests to museums from the Pagan community, and independently of these requests the Ministry of Justice decided to revisit its conditions for the excavation of human remains (Parker Pearson et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digging the Dead in a Digital Media Age

Sayer¹,

Walter²

2016

Archaeologists and the Dead

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A number of recent events inside and outside of the heritage sector have triggered a lively and largely constructive debate about the excavation, display, and conservation of human remains in the UK (see Jenkins 2008, 2010; Moshenska 2009; Sayer 2009, 2010a; Parker Pearson et al. 2011; Giesen 2013). Two events have been of particular significance: the reburial of human remains prompted by requests to museums from the Pagan community, and independently of these requests the Ministry of Justice decided to revisit its conditions for the excavation of human remains (Parker Pearson et al. 2013). In the short term, these issues seem to have been resolved through open consultation and campaigning by archaeologists. British archaeologists consider that they have public support; public-facing archaeology develops strong links within local communities, the Portable Antiquities Scheme engages members of the public in the discovery of metal objects on a national scale, and TV and Radio programmes regularly include archaeology or excavation as their central theme. There are various ways to engage with archaeology outside of a traditional museum environment: people can shift soil or sit back and read about it in numerous academic and popular books, in magazines, and digitally on the internet. This chapter discusses this new digital environment by describing and analysing three events in British burial archaeology which deliberately sought coverage online and within global media. These are: 1) the burial campaign which was instrumental in raising the profile of the reburial problem in England; 2) the discovery of a cow and woman buried in the same grave in a fifth- and sixth-century cemetery at Oakington, Cambridgeshire; 3) the investigation of King Richard III’s final resting place in the city of Leicester. One of us was instrumental in publicizing the first two events; neither of us was involved in the third. We will refer also to a recent case in East Anglia where negative media publicity came unsought by the archaeologists concerned. In the mid-twentieth century, archaeology found a place in mass broadcasting and early shows like Animal, Vegetable and Mineral or Chronicle captured the public imagination (Bailey 2010).

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Dead bodies: The changing treatment of human remains in British museum collections and the challenge to the traditional model of the museum

Cited by 29 publications

References 11 publications

Institutional Bodies: Spatial Agency and the Dead

Institutional Bodies: Spatial Agency and the Dead

Religion of the past or living heritage?

Digging the Dead in a Digital Media Age

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