Ethical Entanglements. The caring for human remains in museums and research.
Research on human remains is a part of a long scientific tradition. Today museums are the custodians of extensive collections of both skeletal remains and soft tissues. In the Humanities and Social Sciences (archaeology, biological anthropology, history of medicine) research on human remains provide valuable information on the lived experience of people in the past. At the same time, reservations are made against research on the remains of people who were never able to consent. Laws and guidelines have been developed to regulate the issue, but these have for the most part been developed to handle the remains from indigenous peoples/minorities, and do not include provisions for all remains. Similarly, medical laws and regulations do not consider older remains. Researchers who work on these collections therefore find themselves in a relatively unregulated area, which risks undermining the legitimacy of the research. Through a series of comparative studies of practices and guidelines in museums in Sweden and abroad, this project seeks to elucidate how ethical decisions are made and what values inform these decisions. The study will be carried out through a combination of text analysis (legal documents and recommendations), surveys and interviews with museum professionals, and studies of exhibitions. The purpose of the study is to inform a more initiated discussion about the complexity of the issue, strengthen the ethical awareness within the field, and inform recommendations.
Final report
The project aim is to build a stronger foundation for professional ethics with regards to collections of human remains in museums. It moves beyond the status quo in the current debate that emphasizes a postcolonial critique and focuses on specific categories of human remains (ethnographic and colonial collections). The project engages philosophically with the complexity of the category “human remains” across medical, anatomical, pathological, ethnographic, culture historical, and archaeological settings. This expansion of the field calls for new attitudes and practices. Through the development of a new theoretical model, combined with data collection and analysis of the current state of the field, the project has yielded results that can be mobilized to strengthen professional ethics, moving toward practices that centre on care.
The PI Liv Nilsson Stutz managed the project, its plans, and administration. She developed and published the main theoretical model, the Spectrum Model, which embraces the complexity of human remains in collections and research, situating them as constantly moving on a spectrum of perception between “objects of science” and “lived lives.” The model is used both as a theoretical concept to address and illustrate the complexity and entanglement of the category “old human remains,” and as a tool in the analysis of the data.
The data collection and analysis were developed through three different work packages, one of which was partially adjusted to accommodate a shift in staffing.
The first WP was completed by Liv Nilsson Stutz, and consisted of mapping and analysis of practices of curation and care of human remains in Swedish museums. While a lot of assumptions are being made about museum practices, there has been no systematic research on this before. This study fills the gap. The focus on Swedish museums is motivated by several interconnected factors: 1) Swedish museum professionals and researchers handling human remains currently lack clear and shared ethical guidelines; 2) the “third science revolution” in archaeology has increased pressure to access and sample human remains for research; and 3) as a result of the shifting cultural and social debate influenced by postcolonial critique, Swedish museums have been undergoing a gradual, but until now undocumented, shift toward a formalization of their ethical practices in handling human remains. This study analyses how museum professionals handle these competing pressures, and how they view the complex ethical challenges they face. This WP collected data through a survey of museums that hold human remains (48 museums responded, a response rate of 74%) and follow-up on-site interviews at 19 museums, including 30 participants (recorded and transcribed). The study was approved by the Ethical Review Authority. The interviews were analysed from a practice theory perspective to reveal values underlying decision-making in the handling, categorization, storage, exhibition, reproduction and redistribution of images, and access to research. The study confirms the current lack of consensus in Swedish museum practices with regards to ethics and human remains. It also demonstrates a complexity in the professional care for human remains. On the one hand, routines, forms, and regulations (including recently developed guidelines and support documents), and even vocabulary, tend to move the human remains toward the object of science end of the spectrum. At the same time, when probed, informants revealed more complex understandings that recognized the lived-life end of the spectrum. This was based both on professional knowledge and rooted in personal emotions such as empathy. These sensibilities are not formalized in professional ethics, yet they play a part in some decision making. This is an important result since it demonstrates that the view of museum professionals and researchers as categorizing human remains only as objects of science is false. If this competence would be valued and made more visible in the professional practices, it could provide a foundation for a more solid ethics that relates to the complexity of human remains as both objects of science and as lived lives. It could also facilitate future relationships with other stakeholders. Many of the participants reported that the participation in the survey and interview stimulated discussions and changes in policy. This can be viewed as an informal but significant outcome of the project.
The second WP investigated the overlapping research ethics about human remains between the humanities/social sciences (history, archaeology, cultural anthropology, etc.), and the natural sciences. Initially the package was conceptualized around forensic anthropology, but a shift in the staffing resulted in the recruitment of Rita Peyroteo Stjerna, and the study shifted to focus on biomolecular archaeology, which is her field of expertise. This shift allowed Ethical Entanglements to engage directly with the research ethics of stakeholders within “the third science revolution.” This WP collected data about attitudes and practices directly from the researchers active in the field through interviews. Like for WP 1, this is a group that has not been studied in a systematic way before. The study was approved by the Ethical Review Authority. The data were collected at seven big research institutions in the field of biomolecular research on human remains (3 in Sweden and 4 in Europe). The dataset comprises 50 individuals from at least 21 nationalities (15 European and 6 non-European), including lab technicians, PhD students, researchers, post-docs, group leaders, and heads of department. The most important result of this study is, that like in WP1, nuanced voices and and varied perspectives came out, challenging how researchers’ positions are simplified in debates over ethical sampling and handling of human remains. The interviews reveal an ethically sensitive and thoughtful community (even if it is one that does not tend to publish on professional ethics). An important conclusion was that these professionals need to be more active in participating in the debate about the ethics that regulate their field and about which they hold necessary specialist knowledge.
The third WP was conducted by Sarah Tarlow who explored the distinctions made in professional ethics between identified and non-identified individuals in archaeological and historical research on human remains. This WP was philosophical in character and relied on museum visits and publications, as it deconstructed and problematized a key characteristic of the spectrum model and argued for an expansion of the debate and work on professional ethics and research ethics regarding human remains beyond the dominating postcolonial discourse.
During the project period, Nicole Crescenzi, a PhD student at IMT Lucca (Italy) joined the team on an informal basis as Nilsson Stutz became her adviser. Her work on the exhibition of human remains implements the spectrum model. Her defence is preliminarily planned for June 2025.
The most important results of the project can be summarized:
• The development of the spectrum model provides a conceptual tool to move the debate on research ethics on human remains beyond its current status quo, recognizing the complexity of all human remains and simultaneously providing space for the protection of both the object of science and the lived life.
• The concept of care as a fundamental value for museums and researchers provides an opening to move beyond the current deadlock between valuing human remains as objects of science or lived life. The focus on care initiates discussing the how rather than the if when it comes to research, exhibition and curation of human remains, potentially unlocking some of the current status quo.
• The empirical evidence of a recognition of the lived life end of the spectrum among museum professionals and researchers undermines the harmful stereotypes that dominate the debate and provides a basis for relationship building between stakeholders inside and outside the institutions of knowledge production (labs, universities, museums, etc).
In addition to the separate work packages, the project members met regularly online and in person for seminars, workshops, and field trips. We also met with our reference group twice to present the work in progress for discussion. The results have been disseminated in different formats (for details, please see our website).
We have disseminated the results in the academic and professional community, through networking events and presentations at both institutions and formal national and international conferences including invited keynotes (42 presentations finished and 2 planned for 2025).
• The team members have organized sessions at high profile international conferences (2 finished, 2 planned for 2025).
• To engage directly with the museum community and contract archaeology community, we have been invited to present or consult (2 finished events and 3 planned for 2025) and organized a workshop on human remains in contract achaeology.
• Project website and media coverage
• We have engaged in public events (3 discussion panels, 2 public talks) in Sweden and abroad.
The project is by nature collaborative with the museum sector and this work has been organic through presentations, consultations and exchange. New potential stakeholders have emerged (e.g., informal teaching collections at various institutions—from the Royal Academy of Art to small schools across Sweden—that have sought advice from us), and colleagues abroad are showing interest in our results (e.g., the museum community in the Netherlands). We are currently considering the possibility of scaling this project to a European level as the problems identified by Ethical Entanglements, and the tools and concepts, are of great interest to handle emerging awareness in the international research community.
The PI Liv Nilsson Stutz managed the project, its plans, and administration. She developed and published the main theoretical model, the Spectrum Model, which embraces the complexity of human remains in collections and research, situating them as constantly moving on a spectrum of perception between “objects of science” and “lived lives.” The model is used both as a theoretical concept to address and illustrate the complexity and entanglement of the category “old human remains,” and as a tool in the analysis of the data.
The data collection and analysis were developed through three different work packages, one of which was partially adjusted to accommodate a shift in staffing.
The first WP was completed by Liv Nilsson Stutz, and consisted of mapping and analysis of practices of curation and care of human remains in Swedish museums. While a lot of assumptions are being made about museum practices, there has been no systematic research on this before. This study fills the gap. The focus on Swedish museums is motivated by several interconnected factors: 1) Swedish museum professionals and researchers handling human remains currently lack clear and shared ethical guidelines; 2) the “third science revolution” in archaeology has increased pressure to access and sample human remains for research; and 3) as a result of the shifting cultural and social debate influenced by postcolonial critique, Swedish museums have been undergoing a gradual, but until now undocumented, shift toward a formalization of their ethical practices in handling human remains. This study analyses how museum professionals handle these competing pressures, and how they view the complex ethical challenges they face. This WP collected data through a survey of museums that hold human remains (48 museums responded, a response rate of 74%) and follow-up on-site interviews at 19 museums, including 30 participants (recorded and transcribed). The study was approved by the Ethical Review Authority. The interviews were analysed from a practice theory perspective to reveal values underlying decision-making in the handling, categorization, storage, exhibition, reproduction and redistribution of images, and access to research. The study confirms the current lack of consensus in Swedish museum practices with regards to ethics and human remains. It also demonstrates a complexity in the professional care for human remains. On the one hand, routines, forms, and regulations (including recently developed guidelines and support documents), and even vocabulary, tend to move the human remains toward the object of science end of the spectrum. At the same time, when probed, informants revealed more complex understandings that recognized the lived-life end of the spectrum. This was based both on professional knowledge and rooted in personal emotions such as empathy. These sensibilities are not formalized in professional ethics, yet they play a part in some decision making. This is an important result since it demonstrates that the view of museum professionals and researchers as categorizing human remains only as objects of science is false. If this competence would be valued and made more visible in the professional practices, it could provide a foundation for a more solid ethics that relates to the complexity of human remains as both objects of science and as lived lives. It could also facilitate future relationships with other stakeholders. Many of the participants reported that the participation in the survey and interview stimulated discussions and changes in policy. This can be viewed as an informal but significant outcome of the project.
The second WP investigated the overlapping research ethics about human remains between the humanities/social sciences (history, archaeology, cultural anthropology, etc.), and the natural sciences. Initially the package was conceptualized around forensic anthropology, but a shift in the staffing resulted in the recruitment of Rita Peyroteo Stjerna, and the study shifted to focus on biomolecular archaeology, which is her field of expertise. This shift allowed Ethical Entanglements to engage directly with the research ethics of stakeholders within “the third science revolution.” This WP collected data about attitudes and practices directly from the researchers active in the field through interviews. Like for WP 1, this is a group that has not been studied in a systematic way before. The study was approved by the Ethical Review Authority. The data were collected at seven big research institutions in the field of biomolecular research on human remains (3 in Sweden and 4 in Europe). The dataset comprises 50 individuals from at least 21 nationalities (15 European and 6 non-European), including lab technicians, PhD students, researchers, post-docs, group leaders, and heads of department. The most important result of this study is, that like in WP1, nuanced voices and and varied perspectives came out, challenging how researchers’ positions are simplified in debates over ethical sampling and handling of human remains. The interviews reveal an ethically sensitive and thoughtful community (even if it is one that does not tend to publish on professional ethics). An important conclusion was that these professionals need to be more active in participating in the debate about the ethics that regulate their field and about which they hold necessary specialist knowledge.
The third WP was conducted by Sarah Tarlow who explored the distinctions made in professional ethics between identified and non-identified individuals in archaeological and historical research on human remains. This WP was philosophical in character and relied on museum visits and publications, as it deconstructed and problematized a key characteristic of the spectrum model and argued for an expansion of the debate and work on professional ethics and research ethics regarding human remains beyond the dominating postcolonial discourse.
During the project period, Nicole Crescenzi, a PhD student at IMT Lucca (Italy) joined the team on an informal basis as Nilsson Stutz became her adviser. Her work on the exhibition of human remains implements the spectrum model. Her defence is preliminarily planned for June 2025.
The most important results of the project can be summarized:
• The development of the spectrum model provides a conceptual tool to move the debate on research ethics on human remains beyond its current status quo, recognizing the complexity of all human remains and simultaneously providing space for the protection of both the object of science and the lived life.
• The concept of care as a fundamental value for museums and researchers provides an opening to move beyond the current deadlock between valuing human remains as objects of science or lived life. The focus on care initiates discussing the how rather than the if when it comes to research, exhibition and curation of human remains, potentially unlocking some of the current status quo.
• The empirical evidence of a recognition of the lived life end of the spectrum among museum professionals and researchers undermines the harmful stereotypes that dominate the debate and provides a basis for relationship building between stakeholders inside and outside the institutions of knowledge production (labs, universities, museums, etc).
In addition to the separate work packages, the project members met regularly online and in person for seminars, workshops, and field trips. We also met with our reference group twice to present the work in progress for discussion. The results have been disseminated in different formats (for details, please see our website).
We have disseminated the results in the academic and professional community, through networking events and presentations at both institutions and formal national and international conferences including invited keynotes (42 presentations finished and 2 planned for 2025).
• The team members have organized sessions at high profile international conferences (2 finished, 2 planned for 2025).
• To engage directly with the museum community and contract archaeology community, we have been invited to present or consult (2 finished events and 3 planned for 2025) and organized a workshop on human remains in contract achaeology.
• Project website and media coverage
• We have engaged in public events (3 discussion panels, 2 public talks) in Sweden and abroad.
The project is by nature collaborative with the museum sector and this work has been organic through presentations, consultations and exchange. New potential stakeholders have emerged (e.g., informal teaching collections at various institutions—from the Royal Academy of Art to small schools across Sweden—that have sought advice from us), and colleagues abroad are showing interest in our results (e.g., the museum community in the Netherlands). We are currently considering the possibility of scaling this project to a European level as the problems identified by Ethical Entanglements, and the tools and concepts, are of great interest to handle emerging awareness in the international research community.