Artifact repatriation
Don Coldsmith
Monday, January 26, 2009
I’VE ALWAYS enjoyed visiting museums of any kind. I could list some of my favorites, but it would be a pretty long list. They vary a lot in type, purpose and location. A museum of natural history, a museum of science and industry, another of regional history, one of Native American artifacts and culture. All are interesting, each in its own way. All are educational, if well done, and there’s certainly a lot of creativity now and new expertise on the subject.
I once picked up a publication from the University of Alaska Museum, which had a short article about a new and unique problem for museums. It dealt with the handling and display of “human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony.”
That would seem to be a broad subject, but mostly revolved around a traditional lack of respect for Native American Indian grave sites. At what point does archaeological research become disrespect for the dead and for their religion?
I think part of it is dependent on a pretty universal lack of respect for the dead on the part of our own culture. I recall, for instance, a museum which displayed, among a fine collection of early bibles, one which was bound in human skin — that of an American Indian. This WAS an equal opportunity museum, however. They also displayed, in another area, a blonde, curly-haired scalp.
In another instance, a display featured a pair of stylish ladies’ high-heeled shoes, in two-toned leather made from the hide of a Wyoming bank robber. This, too, was non-partisan. The donor had been a white man. It was quite common a century ago to give such a body to the local physician after the shoot out, for scientific study. Until fairly recent times, most physicians’ offices had a study skeleton for reference when treating bone injuries or ailments. And it’s always going to be necessary for medical students to study cadavers.
Not too many years ago, traveling in the Southwest, we stopped for gas at a little desert mom-and-pop store. They carried a wide variety of items for sale, as well as a number of interesting desert and frontier artifacts. One of these was a mummified corpse, that of a woman in a flowered print dress. The shifting desert sand had been blown away by the wind a few decades ago to expose this body. No one had any idea who she was, how she died, or how long she’d been there.
I thought this was a bit extreme, to put her on display. But where do you draw the line? I’ve always felt that 500 years from now, I wouldn’t particularly mind if somebody could learn anything by looking at my bones. I don’t know what they could learn. A bit of arthritis, a new hip, knee — a couple of minor fractures, (though no fracture is minor if it’s on yourself).
It’s quite possible, though, that with all the advances in DNA identification even now, that such a study COULD be quite valuable. Of course, if it were my bones and my DNA, I’d want to think that it was done with a certain amount of respect.
That’s probably the answer. Respect. Back in 1990, President George Bush signed into law the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This law requires that all federal agencies and museums that receive federal funds must notify and consult with the appropriate Native American group regarding the human remains, etc., listed above. As I see it, the human remains may not, in many cases, be as important as some of the religious artifacts from grave sites. Europeans have never really understood the spiritual qualities of these items.
Unrelated, but of interest, maybe, is the preoccupation of early Christianity with “relics” of early saints and church leaders. In the Mediterranean region, many cultural museums will display certified body parts of these persons. A friend who was on a research trip to the area a few years ago noted that two museums, several hundred miles apart, each displayed a mummified arm of John the Baptist. He was a bit startled to note that both were right arms.
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.