3. Issues Surrounding the presentation of
Human Remains
Audience Sensitivities
Interpretation
Replicas
4. Audience Sensitivities
Many museums do not display images or the actual human
remains at all. However in the Guidance for the care of Human
Remains it points out that according to visitor surveys the vast
majority of museum visitors are comfortable with and expect to
see human remains in displays.
Hugh Kelmister, curator at the Petrie Museum of Egyption
Archaelogy interviewed museum visitors in 2003 and found
that 82.5% of visitors believed that museums should be
allowed to display human remains in whatever way they see
fit.
But there should be special considerations made to prepare
visitors to view them respectfully or to warn those who do not
want to view them at all.
“As a general principle, human remains should be displayed in
such a way as to avoid people coming across them unawares.
This might be in a specially partitioned or alcoved part of a
gallery.”
6. Interpretation
The Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in
Museums
“Human remains should be displayed only if the museum
believes it makes a material contribution to a particular
interpretation; and that contribution could not be made
equally effectively in another way.”
Educational purposes
Bringing people into physical contact with past people
And to encourage reflection
“There is a fascination with dead bodies. The interest is
evident in popular exhibitions such as Hayward’s
Spectacular Bodies and the Museum of London’s own
highly successful London Bodies”
8. Code of Ethics
In the Policy on Human Remains for the National
Welsh Museums it says
“Where human remains form part of an exhibition,
either long or short term, we will display them in a
culturally appropriate, sensitive and informative
manner and will always be accompanied by
explanatory and contextual information”
10. Replicas
Replicas of human remains could be used instead of
the real remains.
Expense
According to Andrew Chamberlain using replicas
may reduce public interest in an exhibit.
Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta explains that visitors expect
to see and learn from authentic objects rather than
replicas
T.D. Stewart “museums have the unique function of
collecting, preserving and interpreting objects. Words
and pictures can be found in books, but objects can
be found only in museums. People visit museums to
see original objects, not pictures or casts thereof”
Editor's Notes
The objects I will be using for the presentation are the skulls in newport museum. I thought they were great examples of how to and how not to present human remains. I’ll be looking at the two skulls and comparing the two. I believe one of the skulls is very well presented, it’s in context and adds to the educational aspect of the exhibition. However, the other skull shows how not to present human remains with no context or educational value, the human skull is in with various other animal bones and almost has a shrine like quality to it
I thought beginning with audience would be best since if the audience does not want to see the remains should we still show them although they have educational value? I think the main reason that human remains are such a divisive subject as it is somewhat emotionally charged. People can have such a wide range of reactions to human remains therefore making sure that as many people are happy as possible is imperitive. I thought I would begin with looking at the Guidance for the care of human remains, this is a good basis to what is deemed appropriate and what is not.The Guide is from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport gives advice on public display click according to the codeMoreover, It has been suggested that this sensitivity may not be from the majority of the public but from a small minority. Click HoweverAnd the code of ethics states that measures should be made to avoid people coming across them unaware, so putting them in a specially partitioned part of the gallery is advised. How does this translate in newport
This is the warning for people walking in to the museum, I would say it is somewhat sufficient, it’s warning people and has kept the remains to one area of the museum however improvements can be made. Making it clear as you’re walking through the museum when human remains are about to be present as people may accidentally stumble upon them not realising where they are going if they are not familiar with the museum. Maybe adding a map to show the very area to people.Moreover the placement of the sign is only in one of the entrances if someone again who is unfamiliar they would never even see the sign so maybe putting another one by the doors. Moreover, the sign is quite small it would make sense to make it somewhat more eye catching by either making the sign larger or in a brighter colour.Jack Lohman in the book Human Remains and Museum Practice gives an example of how to sensitively show the remains by using the London bodies exhibit at the Museum of London. Children had to be accompanied by an adult, visitors could assess the content through a window before being able to enter and a sign requested respect for the materials on display. Although a lot of these measures couldn’t be made in Newport museum because of lack of funds and staff but ideas like this can be adapted, for example allowing parents to see a picture before hand, or even having one on the website would be a step forward. Moreover a sign asking for respect around the remains is an easy step to take and allows the museum to show the public that they take showing remains very seriously.
Once the museum is comfortable that the audience is well prepared I think looking at the interpretation of the objects is the next to look at because this will also present to the public that these objects are here to be respected and are being shown for a reason. Click. slideTherefore it should be interpreted correctly and it also implies that the department would rather photographs or replica’s rather than the real bones if it is felt that would do just as good a job as the real deal. However there are still issues surrounding replica’s as I will explain later.The main reasons put forward for the use of human remains areClick in educational purposes especially for medical practitioners but also in general science and history it can be very useful for example when explaining burial practices. ClickclickHowever, there is another problem in going to far and as Jack Lohman in the book Human Remains and Museum Practice points out click slideThereforecare needs to be taken when displaying human remains to not exploit this fascination in order to increase visitor numbers. For example, Lohman describes the displays of “bog people” in copenhagen and elsewhere as clinging to a theatre of morbidity. The difference in presentation from what the Code of ethics trying to promote and what Lohman describes I think summarises the differences between the two presentations in Newport. One is obviosuly contributing to the educational aspect of the interpretation, the other skull seems to just be there for morbid fascination.
The first presentation I think is very well presented all of the objects seem to have a purpose in the display and are adding to the educational aspect.It tells you where they were found and therefore gives context, it also tells you about the findings so far and adds information about the burial ritual at the time.Moreover it gives information on how the information was found by telling us about the radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis.So far this has given us information about the bones and their lives before however also about the process involved in gathering information.
Although it doesn’t apply to newport museum I feel like it’s a good indicator of what is deemed ethical amongst the museums in Wales. This leads me into the other exhibition which i feel is not ethical.
I feel this display is very confusing and almost shrine-like as there are 4 bones which look oddly like candles surrounding the skull and then all the animal bones surrounding it. It took me a while to even find the label for the skull and it doesn’t actually have it’s own label, it first explains the tail bones which surround the skull and then it just tells you the skull was found in the Orb Works. It doesn’t explain when it was found, why it’s coloured black, what time period the person lived in. There is no interpretation at all which I think is very unethical, it just seems to be something eye catching, or they just needed to fill in the space so they put a bunch of bones in and felt that was enough. There isn’t the respect that is present in the other display, the skull just seems like another object.
ClickClick. It can be expensive to produce replicas of human remains and therefore for example in newport, it doesn’t make sense to make the replica’s rather than using the resources that are available. However even when museums do have the facilities to produce authentic replicas it is still very expensive, but there are more problems to using replicas can cause more problemsClick in the book Human RemainsThis is supported by Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta explains that after an investigation about the Human Mind and Body exhibition at the Museum Victoria in Australia it was found that visitors expect to see and learn from authentic objects rather than replicas. The use of real tissue has the added powerful effect that helps connect the visitor with the display: "this display is about me.Moreover T.D. Stewart mentions that
