The Deutscher Museumsbund publishes new guide on handling human remains

Back in 2013, the Ger­man Mu­se­ums As­so­ci­a­tion pub­lished the guide­line “Care of Hu­man Re­mains in Ger­man Mu­se­ums and Col­lec­tions”, pro­vid­ing much-need­ed rec­om­men­da­tions for mu­se­ums. An in­ter­dis­ci­plinary work­ing group at the As­so­ci­a­tion has now re­vised the pub­li­ca­tion. The new guide serves as a prac­ti­cal work­ing aid and an­swers rel­e­vant ques­tions on the han­dling of hu­man re­mains along the main tasks of a mu­se­um: Col­lect­ing, pre­serv­ing, re­search­ing, ex­hibit­ing and me­di­at­ing.

In ad­di­tion, the guide of­fers ap­proach­es from var­i­ous dis­ci­plines, such as con­tri­bu­tions from arche­ol­o­gy, bi­o­log­i­cal an­thro­pol­o­gy, eth­nol­o­gy, and law. A sep­a­rate chap­ter is de­vot­ed to the top­ic of re­turns: It shows how im­por­tant it is for Ger­man mu­se­ums to ad­dress this is­sue and what needs to be con­sid­ered in prac­tice when re­turn­ing hu­man re­mains.
Guide to the car­ing of hu­man re­mains