Ciliberti, Rosagemma (Author)
Fulcheri, Ezio (Author)
Petralia, Paolo (Author)
Siri, Anna (Author)
Medicina Historica
Volume: 4
Issue: 3
Pages: 1-8
Human remains have a unique status within museum collections and raise several multifaceted and complex ethical and legal issues. The personal, cultural, symbolic, spiritual or religious significance they have for individuals and groups bears a particular responsibility on the museums in the way they are acquired, handled, and displayed. Human remains may also have the potential to contribute to the culture and common good, through research, teaching and, in a respectful mode, exhibitions. As a valuable resource, they actively encourage personal and community reflection on humanity’s shared heritage. As protagonists of an historical revision process, scientific collections can play a significant role in challenging prejudices and stereotypes of the past. They may foster the change and promote a deeper understanding of different cultural perspec-tives and practices, supporting equality and inclusion, and encouraging a policy open to participation and discussion on choices, in a close relationship with local communities. In a complex and ever-changing world, museums need to ensure respect for the different ways of interpreting nature and human history by engaging with all stakeholders. This includes ethical issues related to the provenance of objects, acquisition, care, interpretation, display, and request for restitution, as well as a commitment by museums to stimulate constructive debate and consultation among the native people belonging the remains.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Thomas W. Laqueur;
(2018)
The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains
(/isis/citation/CBB382030565/)
Article
Barbian, Lenore;
Sledzik, Paul;
Reznick, Jeffrey;
(2012)
Remains of War
(/isis/citation/CBB001421579/)
Article
Craske, Matthew;
(2011)
“Unwholesome” and “Pornographic”: A Reassessment of the Place of Rackstrow's Museum in the Story of Eighteenth-Century Anatomical Collection and Exhibition
(/isis/citation/CBB001200259/)
Book
Paul Turnbull;
(2019)
Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia
(/isis/citation/CBB646252193/)
Article
Roque, Ricardo;
(2011)
Stories, Skulls, and Colonial Collections
(/isis/citation/CBB001231592/)
Article
Francesca Monza;
Silvia Iorio;
(2018)
Bodies for science. The display of human statues for educational purposes
(/isis/citation/CBB976027619/)
Book
Samuel J. Redman;
(2016)
Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums
(/isis/citation/CBB181840212/)
Book
Elizabeth T. Hurren;
(2021)
Hidden Histories of the Dead: Disputed Bodies in Modern British Medical Research
(/isis/citation/CBB995981550/)
Book
Ferber, Sarah;
Wilde, Sally;
(2011)
The Body Divided: Human Beings and Human “Materials” in Modern Medical History
(/isis/citation/CBB001200121/)
Book
Stephens, Elizabeth;
(2011)
Anatomy as Spectacle: Public Exhibitions of the Body from 1700 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB001250854/)
Article
Rafael Mandressi;
(2016)
Affected Doctors: Dead Bodies and Affective and Professional Cultures in Early Modern European Anatomy
(/isis/citation/CBB302116927/)
Article
Marianne Klemun;
Marina Loskutova;
Anastasia Fedotova;
(2018)
Skulls and Blossoms: Collecting and the Meaning of Scientific Objects as Resources from the 18th to the 20th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB042290012/)
Book
Andrew Graciano;
(2019)
Visualizing the Body in Art, Anatomy, and Medicine since 1800: Models and Modeling
(/isis/citation/CBB806661384/)
Article
Nicholas Binney;
(2018)
The function of the heart is historically contingent
(/isis/citation/CBB696611235/)
Chapter
Evandro Agazzi;
(2016)
Il valore culturale della scienza
(/isis/citation/CBB882918228/)
Book
Giovanni Fornero;
Maurizio Mori;
(2012)
Laici e cattolici in bioetica: storia e teoria di un confronto
(/isis/citation/CBB846992376/)
Book
Sebastiano Serafini;
(2019)
La bioetica in Italia: da una storia di battaglie etico-politiche a spiragli di dialogo tra pensiero cattolico e pensiero laico
(/isis/citation/CBB039016702/)
Book
Claude Blanckaert;
Yves Coppens;
(2015)
Le Musée de l'Homme : Histoire d'un musée laboratoire
(/isis/citation/CBB547356631/)
Article
Kakaliouras, Ann M.;
(2013)
An Anthropology of Repatriation: Contemporary Physical Anthropological and Native American Ontologies of Practice
(/isis/citation/CBB001212638/)
Article
Stern, Megan;
(2006)
Dystopian Anxieties Versus Utopian Ideals: Medicine from Frankenstein to The Visible Human Project and Body Worlds
(/isis/citation/CBB000640384/)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Science as Culture
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Museum History Journal
Journal of the History of Collections
Be the first to comment!