Repatriation and reburial of human remains

The repatriation and reburial of human remains is a current debate in archaeology. Various indigenous peoples around the world, such as Native Americans and Indigenous Australians have requested that human remains from their respective communities be repatriated for reburial. A famous case is that of the Kennewick Man in the United States. Similarly, contemporary Druids have requested the reburial of ancient human remains in the British Isles.

Repatriation in general seems to be concerned with objects, in the broadest sense of the word, ranging from human remains to art repatriation. But it actually is about people in the present and their perception of the past in the present. Repatriation claims are linked to politics, ethnic identity, and other debates or problems in contemporary society that have or claim to have a historical link to the object.

The controversy comes from the fact that some believe that it is disrespectful to the dead and to their contemporary descendants for their remains to be displayed in a museum or in other ways stored.

The first and foremost undercurrent of repatriation is the ill treatment of people in the past, the repatriation of human remains is to a degree part of a healing process bandaging the traumas of history. In essence it is important that this ill treatment is addressed but with the repatriation and reburial of remains they are essentially lost to the world as a reminder of that part of the object's history or biography. Repatriation also presents an opportunity for people to lay claim to their own past and actively decide what is and what is not a part of their cultural heritage. The basis beneath the open wounds of history is the difference in treatment of remains that were seen as sufficiently other and could therefore be studied without any ethical considerations.

The contesting of ownership of human remains in museums and other institutions, and demands of return to cultural groups is largely fuelled by the difference in the handling of ‘white’ and indigenous remains. Where the former were reburied the latter were subjects of study and eventually ending up in museums. In a sense one cultural group assumed the right to carry out scientific research upon another cultural group. This disrespectful unequal treatment stems from a time when race and cultural differences had huge social implications. These are changing but the aftermath of centuries of inequality cannot be corrected so easily. This frustration is what partly fuels the repatriation and ownership claims that seem to have increased in the last 30 years. The “traumas of history” can be addressed by reconciliation, repatriation and formal governmental apologies disapproving of conducts in the past by the institutions they now represent. A good example of a repatriation case is described by Thorton where a large group of massacred Indians is returned to their tribe, showing the healing power of the repatriation gesture. But the repatriation of Kennewick man goes far beyond the colonial and Indian confrontations that are the real trauma.

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