Long Road

The Australian has a good article today, “Day of the Remains,” about the general trend of museums and the states that host them to accept the ethical claim over the scientific claims about repatriating human remains. Of course here in the US the Kennewick man debate has faded from the headlines, but the controversy is still pretty entrenched. But I think the general point of the article (while noting the ongoing exceptions -France) is correct in recognizing this general trend.

As skulls and other bones disappear from the display cases, if not the collections, of museums across the world, the arguments used to support the repatriation of human remains appear to have gradually won out over arguments about scientific need and the value of anthropological collections.