Trophies, Objects, and Oddities: Exploring the Phenomenon of Dehumanization through the Unethical Treatment of Human Remains

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Human skeletal remains, divorced from their original context, may be rendered “oddities” and collectible items by individuals wishing to possess human bones for sale, trade, or personal curation. This phenomenon contributes to the continued dehumanization and necroviolence against unidentified and unclaimed individuals. These themes are interrogated through case studies of unidentified skeletal remains from the University of New Hampshire's Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery (F.A.I.R.) Laboratory: 1) a painted femur carved to look like a rattlesnake that was used as a decorative object, 2) a cranium and mandible from two different individuals forced into articulation that was kept as a display object, and 3) a cranium with multiple gunshot wounds curated in a private collection. While each case is from a unique context, they were similarly treated as collectibles; this treatment, in effect, transformed these people into objects of fascination or ritual. Cases such as these require strategic plans for identification, repatriation, and/or reburial. We present three disparate, but effective, strategies here based on the goal of restoring dignity to these remains. We encourage other labs that curate isolated human remains to prioritize return of remains (to families and/or to the ground) over long-term curation in osteology labs.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53193