Exhibiting Death: Human Remains on Display: Between Relics, Racial Considerations, and Commodification

This paper considers the historiography produced on the topic of human remains and the history of their study, classification, and display, focusing on how these practices have evolved over time and on the changing interpretations of skeletal remains, mummies, and other corporeal relics. Drawing on case studies from museums, religious institutions, and scientific collections, the paper investigates how human remains have been interpreted through various lenses, such as sacred relics, scientific objects, colonial trophies, curiosities, and symbols of cultural inferiority. The analysis traces the shift from the 19th-century fascination with exoticized bodies and imperial conquest to contemporary debates on ethical display, repatriation, and the respectful treatment of remains. Particular attention is given to the categorization of these remains: how, for example, the same body parts may be treated as a relic in one context and as scientific material in another, depending on cultural, religious, and scientific paradigms. Additionally, this work explores the commercialization of death through the exploitation of the public's fascination with the macabre. Finally, the paper interrogates how colonial legacies have shaped the interpretation and classification of human remains, with an emphasis on the racial hierarchies that influenced early anthropological collections, arguing that the history of the display of human remains not only reflects the power dynamics of the past, but also challenges contemporary institutions to confront their legacies.