Indigenous people win bone battle
UK museums and universities could soon have to repatriate many of the human remains in their collections to indigenous peoples around the world.
MPs were told on Tuesday that a working group that has been looking into the issue will recommend a panel be set up to oversee the return of artefacts.
Campaigners have pressurised curators to hand over old bones so that they can be buried in their tribal homelands.
Some scientists have resisted the calls because they still study some material.
They have argued that this research has provided invaluable information about human origins and evolution.
Contested claims
The idea of a panel to investigate and adjudicate on claims of ownership of the remains - which covers a range of material from locks of hair to full skeletons - will be put forward by the Human Remains Working Group on Wednesday.
Its chairman, Professor Norman Palmer, outlined the group's key findings to a Commons select committee.
"There is a compelling case for an open, public, objective resolution mechanism by which claims can be heard," he said.
He added that leaders, or elders, from affected communities, and not just direct descendants, should be able to lodge claims.
A National Human Remains Advisory Panel should be established to investigate those cases where an institution wanted to retain artefacts or contested a claim, Professor Palmer said.
Evidence from the US and Australia where repatriation legislation has already been introduced suggests such arguments are bound to arise.
Local agreements
Already, one of the Palmer's own colleagues has indicated his objections to the group's findings.
Sir Neil Chalmers, director of the Natural History Museum, has described the proposals as unworkable and warned that the recommendations would lead to the mandatory return of scientifically valuable objects.
Sir Neil wants to see museums left to establish their own mediation mechanisms.
Most of the remains in UK collections date back beyond 1850; some are tens of thousands of years old. Although much is of UK origin, a great deal comes from abroad.
Several hundred specimens - perhaps a thousand or more - could become the focus for repatriation claims from Australia and the US.
UK legislation as it stands largely prevents repatriation - even in cases where curators are happy to hand over artefacts.
'Stolen' bones
Scientists say that by applying modern analytical techniques, they can use many old bones to discern patterns of migration in ancient human communities - who lived where, who mixed with whom and when.
The chemistry of the bones will very often record how an individual lived - and died.
But indigenous groups believe the collections are an affront to their customs and claim much of the material was effectively stolen by colonial explorers.
They say they should have every right - legal and moral - to repossess the material.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3241369.stm
