Human Remains in Museums and Collections

Abstract

For decades, the rights of museums to house, exhibit, and research human remains, in particular those from Indigenous peoples collected during colonial times, has been questioned in many parts of the world. This debate has also reached the German museum community. In 2013, the German Museums Association (Deutscher Museumsbund, DMB) published the “Recommendations for the Care of Human Remains in Museums and Collections”. At the end of that year, Larissa Förster and Sarah Fründt convened an interdisciplinary workshop to critically discuss these “recommendations”. The results were later published, together with additional statements by international stakeholders.