In a book published yesterday, Tiffany Jenkins, a sociologist, highlighted how uneasy museums are becoming when it comes to displaying human remains. Jenkins gave examples including the Museum of London, which removed bones showing the effects of rickets, and Manchester University Museum, which took the head of an iron-age human, Worsley Man, off display; in 2008, it briefly covered its mummies with sheets.
Jenkins claims that museums are bowing to pressure from organisations such as the pagan group Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD). HAD is not a protest organisation, says its founder, Emma Restall Orr, adding that it doesn't have a blanket policy of wanting all human remains in museums to be reburied. "No one 'owns' human remains," she says. "What we are calling for is a consultation so that local people, pagans, historical societies, scientists, archeologists, everybody gets to say what they think is the best thing to do. That may be to redisplay it with more respect so the personhood is retained."
There is a difference, she says, between a whole skeleton or a preserved body and fragments. "You may have a thigh bone or parts of a skull that are displayed as if they are no more human than a shard of pottery."
Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, which has a code of practice for the display of human remains, is aware of the sensitivities but doesn't believe museums are "in full retreat". "Museums are a history of humankind," he says, "and humans play a central part of it."
