Those bones can no longer speak for themselves.

January 25, 2018 10:13 AM

"On a warm morning last September, a dozen Herero men and women paid a visit to the American Museum of Natural History, in Manhattan. The men wore dark suits and ties, like guests at a funeral. The women wore colorful dresses and hats, following a tradition from Namibia, their home country, in southern Africa. They had come to view relics of a tragic episode in their nation’s history, and to ask the museum, after almost a century, to give them back. Inside the museum, several curators led them to a private room upstairs. A table was covered with cardboard boxes, which the curators invited them to open when they felt ready. Inside the boxes were human skulls and skeletons." Daniel Gross writes for the New Yorker on "The Troubling Origins of the Skeletons in a New York Museum."
posted by ChuraChura (11 comments total)

Still, the museum arguably missed an opportunity, in 1991, to investigate the sources of its von Luschan Collection. If it had done so, it would have discovered, among other grim details, the disturbing context in which its Namibian remains were collected. Now the museum waits on formal requests from communities of descendants to determine the future of the Namibian remains.

question: why is the onus always on those who have suffered to demand what has been stolen from them? and why is it that the ones who plunder and murder are so slow to acquiesce or even acknowledge where their wealth came from?

see also: reparations for slavery and indigenous genocide in the US, Europe as a whole, that whole fucking horrible thing with King Leopold and how that stolen wealth is still widely celebrated and revered today
posted by runt at 10:49 AM on January 25, 2018 [17 favorites]

In this case, there's internal disputes in Namibia and among the Herero as to what should be done with the remains, so it's actually appropriate to wait for a formal request or requests so it can be adjudicated who is the most appropriate custodian. That doesn't mean that AMNH doesn't kind of suck for not actively attempting to repatriate, nor does it mean that they should use it as a way of avoiding repatriation, it just means that having failed in their previous responsibilities doesn't mean they should just shove the remains off on the first person who asks and possibly deny the descendants and relatives of the victims their voice.
posted by tavella at 11:14 AM on January 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

that's not what I'm talking about - I'm talking about why the German institution puts the bulk of the work of determining the provenance of these bones on the people who were devastated by their colonial legacy

that is a continual, persistent failure going forward indicative of a general apathy for the blood on your hands and purposeful ignorance of the capital that your ancestors and society have stolen
posted by runt at 11:23 AM on January 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Sixty-five thousand Herero died. Similar tactics killed ten thousand Nama men and women. (Both groups have called on Germany to pay reparations, and will appear in U.S. federal court on January 25th in an attempt to force the country to do so.)

Whoah that's today! This is FPP-worthy in itself. The latest I've been able to find on this is that the presiding judge refused Germany's request to dismiss the case. Would love to know more as updates come in. I mean the precedent it sets if they win... the implications are pretty far reaching I'd imagine.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 11:52 AM on January 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

Since it is a notable case, the results should be posted here soon after the conclusion is reached. However it seems harder to find out what progress has been made.
posted by TreeRooster at 2:02 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm sorry to say I was unaware of the specifics of the Herero genocide until now, so I'm glad I read the article.

the presiding judge refused Germany's request to dismiss the case

On very very limited technical grounds, and the motion has since been reinstated.

It's been a couple of years since I followed ATS developments closely, but this case looks like a clear loser to me. Entirely independent of any considerations of justice with respect to the Germans, of course. There is very little basis for a court to find an exception to Germany's sovereign immunity to suit in American court and very little basis for a claim of an existing cause of action under American law. It's quite rare for a U.S. court to hear a claim against a foreign defendant concerning acts solely in a foreign country where no Americans were directly damaged (indeed, nobody living at all, and no surviving formerly-organized corporate entity). And some of the relief asked for is just absurd (if the plaintiffs could establish jurisdiction and then liability, damages clearly could and should be paid, but no U.S. court is about to order two other sovereign governments not to negotiate re: reparations without including a third party).

The defense brief to dismiss is not the best I've ever seen, but I would be surprised if this case even survived the reinstated MTD.
posted by praemunire at 2:45 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

odd to link the Holocaust to the German concentration camps of the early century and leave out mention of the original camps. useful in looking at desensitisation, but we should never whitewash British Empire history.

to the victors, the spoils I guess...
posted by Wilder at 9:31 PM on January 25, 2018

There's a similar issue with the remains of Australian Aborigines. There was a massive trade in them until well into the 20th century, not just for (alleged) research but also as grisly mementos. There are substantial allegations that some of the "collectors" may have killed their subjects.

Some of the overseas collections have been returned to Australia, but these remains were generally not treated respectfully and are "lost" in museums' collections or their provenance is no longer known. Here's a report on the issue: Aboriginal remains repatriation
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:50 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Probably the assumption should be that any human skeletons acquired in the last century and a half are suspect until proven legitimately acquired. But then you do run into problems of provenance and how that should dictate treatment. Even in this case, there is clearly internal debate among the people as to the best disposition of the remains. When, due to poor or fraudulent record-keeping, you can't even identify narrowly the person's ethnic identity, or if the ethnic identity no longer really exists, what is the best, most sensitive disposition of the remains?
posted by praemunire at 10:50 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

but many scientists didn’t bother to record the specific groups from which they seized remains, so large portions of the collection are unaffiliated. “They are fair game for study,” Thomas said.

You would think a museum would be more detail oriented. How useful is study / science of random grave robberies?

I am researching the ____ culture. Where are these remains from?
Wow, good question! Dunno!

I am researching random old dead people.
Perfect! Step right this way!
posted by Meatbomb at 1:27 AM on January 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

> I am researching the ____ culture. Where are these remains from? Wow, good question! Dunno!
I am researching random old dead people. Perfect! Step right this way!

I agree. I want museums to embrace and lead a major culture shift in how they regard human remains. Yeah, it's going to be inconvenient, it's going to re-contextualize contributions by major donors from the past and possibly offend the descendants of those major donors, and museums will have to give up possession of collections that they value. There will be all kinds of financial ramifications for the institution, yes. Numerous fields of research will have to adapt, and it will be messy for people's research careers.

The alternative is that wealthy nations are still telling black and brown people that they are more important as inanimate objects for academic study than they are as human beings. C'mon, FFS, imagine that it's your grandmother's bones on the table.

/I say this as someone who enjoys visiting medical museums, anthropological museums, cemeteries, and ossuaries, and finds collections of skulls particularly interesting and moving. I don't want research to screech to a halt. BUT C'MON, FFS, IMAGINE THAT IT'S YOUR GRANDMOTHERS BONES ON THE TABLE.
posted by desuetude at 9:09 AM on January 26, 2018 [5 favorites]