In search of others: the history and legacy of 'race' collections

Abstract

Nineteenth and early twentieth-century scientific interest in the origin and diversity of humankind focused on the measurement and comparison of the skeletal, and sometimes soft tissue, remains of what were then considered different ‘races’. Firmly situated within the race paradigm, such interest led to the removal of human remains from Europe and around the world. Tracing the history of such collections and the scientific interest in them informs understanding of what became known as ‘the reburial issue’, a term coined when Indigenous groups began to request the return of their ancestors’ remains, and these requests were denied.