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

我的项目探索了苏格兰大学收藏的北美人类遗骸的生动属性。我认为，这种有争议的遗产被赋予了重大的情感、代理和教育力量。国际上要求博物馆“非殖民化”的呼声意味着，这些公共机构现在要为他们控制政治争议材料负责(Jenkins，2008)。他们希望敏感地处理这一令人不快的遗产，同时让公众看到他们的殖民遗产，这其中存在着紧张。具体地说，我研究了爱丁堡大学解剖博物馆的威廉·特纳爵士的骨相学收藏品，以及阿伯丁大学的一个较小的收藏品，其中包括10个美国人的头骨。解剖学家和人类学家收集于19世纪，使用这些头骨根据身体上的差异对种族等级进行分类。这些头骨存在争议，因为它们存在于一个政治悖论中。他们往往是非法获得的，他们的来源很少，这使得他们很难与特定的群体联系起来。尽管这些遗骸通常具有精神上的意义，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。相关的后代陷入了这一悖论，因为如果关于这些遗骸的细节未知，他们就不能提出索赔。解决传统博物馆不断变化的职权范围以及这些限制使处理这一遗产变得复杂。这个项目问的是如何恰当地、合乎道德地保存和记住这些遗骸。通过将骷髅定位为人或代理人，我认为他们是强大的主体，可以改变和影响个人和他们周围的机构。我假设，在与这些遗骸亲密的、“感官的接触”中，有教学潜力(Harries，2017：114)。因此，我既研究了人们如何处理这些骨骼，也研究了“骨骼对人做了什么？”(Krmpotich et.等人，2010：373)。我希望这种接触能激发同理心，使“变革性学习”成为可能(Paris and Mercer，2002：401)。然而，这种知识生产具有伦理限制，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负罪感可能是徒劳的，会产生一种“被动的移情”，在建立和解关系方面没有真正的实质(Boler，1999)。我认为，就他们的存在展开对话，可能会产生对他们返回的需求。这涉及到对他们的传记进行档案研究，以定位他们的后代。我还将在苏格兰大学的收藏中创建第一个北美人类遗骸的数字清单。我希望联系来源社区，包括他们对改革头骨展示的看法，询问如何将他们的历史公之于众。我的目标是为非学术受众开发空间，让他们了解这些遗产。这一推广活动包括关于该藏品的历史和当代影响的讲习班、讲座和互动展览。这一宣传活动可能会帮助苏格兰公众了解这些过去，以及它们对现在的土著群体有何影响。因此，我研究了如何建设性地面对苏格兰的殖民遗产。这不仅指重建与土著群体的关系，而且还指将苏格兰人民与其殖民遗产重新联系起来。这些头骨提供了一个机会来探索历史上和现在的殖民不公正。该项目引发了关于苏格兰剩余殖民遗产在制度和个人层面上的伦理后果的紧急对话。这不仅提高了人们对苏格兰存在的关注，还创造了一个机会，让人们对苏格兰在殖民计划中的地位进行批判性的思考。

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.