Debate
Human Remains: objects to study or ancestors to bury?
Venue: Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1
Date: May 18, 2004
Time: 7-8.30pm
Tickets: Tickets cost £8, £5 for Ri Members and concessions.
Booking: Book on the Royal Institution website
http://www.rigb.org/rimain/calendar/booktickets or
call the automated booking line on 020 7670 2985.
Museums and research institutions have always contained collections of human
remains, from ancient mummies to shrunken heads, which have told us about
patterns of evolution and the lives of past cultures. But ethical battles
now rage about 'who owns the bones'. A committee at the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport has recommended that the bones can be returned to
the country or culture of origin, and that institutions obtain consent to
work on the remains retained. And the Human Tissue Bill may make it legally
possible for museums to deaccession remains.
Are these bones really the property of long distant relatives, or the
scholarly responsibility of curators and scientists? Are museums and
scientific institutions surrendering invaluable artefacts and sacrificing
greater knowledge of humanity that we have a responsibility to honour?
Speakers
Maurice Davies deputy director of the Museums Association
Robert Foley director of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary
Studies, Cambridge
Tiffany Jenkins Institute of Ideas; author of the forthcoming Institute of
Ideas paper, Human Remains: objects to study or ancestors to bury?
Norman Palmer chairman of the Working Group on Human Remains in Museum
Collections (tbc)
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