Repatriation, Science and Identity

Cressida Fforde, Hilary Howes, Gareth Knapman, Lyndon Ormond-Parker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781000985207
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Repatriation, Science, and Identity explores the entanglement of race, history, identity and ethics inherent in the application of scientific techniques to determine the provenance of Indigenous Ancestral Remains in repatriation claims and processes.

The book considers how these issues relate to collections of Indigenous Ancestral (bodily) Remains but also their resonance with emerging concerns about the relatively unknown history of scientific interest in Indigenous hair and blood samples. It also explores the more recent practice of sampling for the purposes of DNA analysis and issues concerning the data that has been produced from all of the above types of research. Placing recent interest in applying scientific techniques to repatriation in their historical context, it enables discourses of identity and scientific authority, an assessment of their efficacy and an exploration of ethical and practical challenges and opportunities. In doing so, this book reveals new histories about scientific interest in Indigenous biology and the collections that resulted, as well as providing reflection for all repatriation practitioners considering scientific investigation when faced with the challenges inherent in the repatriation of unprovenanced or poorly provenanced Ancestral Remains.

Providing the reader with a means to approach the value, or otherwise, of the scientific information they may encounter, Repatriation, Science, and Identity is an invaluable resource for researchers and professionals working with Indigenous Ancestral Remains.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• 1 Science, Race, Identity and Repatriation – Key Issues
• 2 Indigenous Bodies Are Not Your Property: Restoring the Authority of Indigenous Consent Restores Justice
• 3 Surveying Craniometry
• 4 Craniometry and Indigenous Repatriation
• 5 The Return of Ancestral Hawaiian Remains Housed at the Duckworth Laboratory, the University of Cambridge
• 6 Explanations of Failure: Identifying Racial Logic, Scientific Authority, and Notions of Authenticity in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
• 7 The Primary Characteristic of Race: A History of Hair Samples from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as Sites of Scientific Analysis
• 8 Blood and the Second Wave of Collecting
• 9 “We Are Taking It Back to Our Homeland; We Are Free to Move On”: Repatriation of Blood Samples to the Galiwin’ku Community
• 10 Ancestors Now: DNA Technologies, Identity and the Repatriation of Indigenous Ancestral Remains
• 11 Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Repatriation and the Biopolitics of DNA
• Index