Human(e) Remains: Articulating Scotland's Colonial Past Through Its Contested Heritage

我的项目探讨了苏格兰大学收藏的北美人类遗骸的生动特性。我认为这一有争议的遗产被赋予了重要的情感，代理和教育的力量。国际社会呼吁博物馆“非殖民化”，这意味着这些公共机构现在要对他们对政治上有争议的材料的控制负责（詹金斯，2008年）。他们期望敏感地处理这一令人不安的遗产，同时让公众看到他们的殖民遗产，这一期望存在着紧张关系。 具体来说，我研究威廉·特纳爵士在爱丁堡大学解剖博物馆的颅相学收藏和阿伯丁大学的一个较小的10个“美国人”头骨收藏。这些头骨是在世纪收集的，解剖学家和人类学家利用这些头骨根据身体差异对种族等级进行了分类。这些头骨是有争议的，因为它们存在于一个政治悖论中。这些武器往往是非法获得的，其来源很少，因此很难将其与特定群体联系起来。虽然这些遗骸往往具有精神意义，但苏格兰机构只有在亲属提出复杂的证据请求时才会考虑遣返。有关的后代陷入了这种矛盾，因为如果这些遗骸的细节不明，他们就不能提出要求。传统博物馆的职能范围不断变化，加上这些限制，使得处理这一遗产变得复杂。这个项目探讨如何适当和道德地保存和记住这些遗骸。通过将头骨定位为人或代理人，我认为他们是强大的主体，可以改变和影响周围的个人和机构。我假设在与这些遗骸的亲密的“感官接触”中存在教育潜力（Harries，2017：114）。因此，我既研究了人们对这些骨头做了什么，又研究了“骨头对人做了什么？“（Krmpotich et.例如，2010：373）。我希望这种参与能够激发同理心，从而实现“变革性学习”（巴黎和美世，2002：401）。然而，这种知识生产具有道德局限性，因为它侵入了不属于我们自己的地方和事物。此外，培养对我们殖民历史的内疚感可能是无益的，产生一种“被动的同理心”，在建立和解关系方面没有真实的实质内容（Boler，1999年）。我建议，就他们的存在展开对话，可能会产生要求他们返回的要求。这包括对他们的传记进行档案研究，以找到他们的后代。我还将创建苏格兰大学收藏的第一个北美人类遗骸数字库存。我希望联系源社区，包括他们对改革头骨展示的观点，询问如何让公众看到他们的历史。我的目标是为非学术观众开发理解这些遗产的空间。这一外联活动包括关于藏品历史和当今影响的讲习班、讲座和互动展览。这种宣传可能有助于苏格兰公众了解这些过去以及它们如何影响现在的土著群体。因此，我研究如何苏格兰的殖民遗产可以建设性地面对。这不仅指重建与土著群体的关系，也指重新将苏格兰人民与他们的殖民遗产联系起来。这些头骨提供了一个探索历史和当今殖民不公正的机会。该项目引发了关于苏格兰剩余殖民遗产在机构和个人层面上的伦理后果的紧急对话。这不仅提高了公众对他们的存在，但也创造了一个机会，批判性地思考苏格兰在殖民项目的位置。

My project explores the lively properties of North American human remains in Scottish University collections. I argue this contentious heritage is bestowed with significant affective, agentic and pedagogical power. International calls to "decolonise" the museum means that these public institutions are now accountable for their containment of politically controversial material (Jenkins, 2008). Tension exists in their expectation to sensitively deal with this uncomfortable heritage, while simultaneously making their colonial legacies visible to the public. Specifically, I examine Sir William Turner's phrenological collection in Edinburgh University's Anatomy Museum and a smaller collection of ten "American" skulls at the University of Aberdeen. Collected in the 19th century, anatomists and anthropologists used these skulls to classify racial hierarchies according to physical differences. These skulls are contentious as they exist within a political paradox. Often illicitly acquired, their minimal provenance makes them difficult to link to a specific group. Although these remains are often spiritually meaningful, Scottish institutions will only consider repatriation if kinsmen file an intricately evidenced request. Concerned descendants are caught in this paradox as they cannot make claims if the details concerning these remains are unknown. Addressing the changing remit of the traditional museum alongside such constraints complicates dealing with this heritage. This project asks how to appropriately and ethically keep and remember these remains. By positioning the skulls as persons or agents, I argue that they are powerful subjects that can transform and affect the individuals and the institutions that surround them. I hypothesise there is pedagogic potential within intimate, "sensuous encounters" with these remains (Harries, 2017: 114). Hence, I examine both what people do with these bones and "what do bones do to people?" (Krmpotich et. al., 2010: 373). I expect that this engagement provokes empathy which enables "transformative learning" (Paris and Mercer, 2002: 401). However, this knowledge production has ethical limitations by intruding in places and things that are not our own. Further, fostering guilt about our colonial past may be unproductive, generating a "passive empathy" which holds no real substance in building reconciliatory relationships (Boler, 1999). I propose that generating a dialogue about their existence may create a demand for their return. This involves archival research into their biographies to locate their descendants. I will also create the first digital inventory of North American human remains in Scottish University collections. I wish to contact source communities to include their perspectives on reforming the skull's display, asking how their histories could be made visible to the public. I aim to develop spaces for non-academic audiences to understand these legacies. This outreach involves workshops, lectures and interactive exhibits on the collection's history and present-day implications. This outreach may help Scottish publics learn about these pasts and how they affect Indigenous groups in the present. Therefore, I examine how Scotland's colonial legacies can be confronted constructively. This refers not only to rebuilding relationships with Indigenous groups but also reconnecting Scottish people with their colonial heritage. The skulls provide an opportunity to explore historic and present-day colonial injustice. The project generates urgent conversations about the ethical consequences that surround Scotland's remaining colonial heritage, both on an institutional and individual level. Not only does this raise publicity about their existence but also creates an opportunity to think critically about Scotland's place in the colonial project.