Woke archaeologists are burying humanity’s past

Woke archaeologists want to put invaluable historical discoveries back in the ground. Universities, museums and other archaeological institutions have long struggled to hold on to their collections of Native American remains and artefacts in the face of activist fury. Now, there is a growing faction within archaeology that advocates for a total ban on any and all representations of dead human beings.

In 2023, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) published new guidance that prohibited the use of photographs of human remains in all its academic journals ‘out of respect for diverse cultural traditions’. The SAA instead suggests that ‘line drawing or other renderings of human remains may be an acceptable substitute for photographs’. Replace photos with stick figures is essentially the instruction, even though this will obviously limit what information can be gleaned by readers and scholars.

Similarly, the Society for California Archaeology announced ahead of its annual conference this year that it would not allow any ‘depictions of the remains of any specific person, regardless of ancestry… including photographs, drawings, x-rays [or] 3D models’.

Museums are following suit, too. In the UK, National Museums Scotland – the body that runs Scotland’s public museums – has also decided to scrub any ‘images of human remains except those that are wrapped’ from its online collections database. These will now only be available for research purposes by request. In Philadelphia, the Mütter Museum made a similar decision. The museum, which is run by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and is dedicated to displaying medical history, has removed all images of human remains from its online database. This includes an image of Carol Orzel, a woman suffering from fibrodysplasia. Before she died in 2018, she specifically requested her body be put on display – so that as many people as possible would learn about the debilitating and ultimately fatal bone and cartilage disease from which she suffered. Her dying wish has been ignored.

Archaeologists now face serious problems when attempting research involving human remains. Many Californian universities have no collections available at all for research purposes any more. Some, such as California State Polytechnic University Pomona, have completely prohibited the study and use of skeletal remains. In 2024, the university’s president put out a memorandum stating that it would ‘suspend the collection of, and prohibit the use of, any ancestral remains or cultural items for any teaching, research or exhibition purposes’. Another, California State University, Bakersfield, told me that it had ‘banned human natural bone material altogether, along with research about Native Americans involving curated collections, archival notes, information and media’.

This is terrible news for any student hoping to study anthropology or archaeology, or even just for members of the public curious about our shared human heritage. So why are so many institutions, which are supposedly dedicated to knowledge and learning, putting some of their most valuable collections behind closed doors?

Too many in the field of archaeology today have fallen victim to prioritising ‘indigenous ways of knowing’ over actual science. Most Native American cultures believe that representations of human remains, even those belonging to non-indigenous peoples, are dangerous. They believe that viewing them can release evil spirits and wreak havoc. These unscientific ideas have been uncritically accepted by right-on archaeologists in the US and, indeed, across the world.

This ‘harm’ is not just thought to be metaphorical or emotional, either. One 2020 book, titled Working With and For Ancestors, warns that ‘the disturbance of ancestors and their belongings can result in physical danger for the living’. Apparently, some think that even digital replicas can have the same effect. At a 2023 meeting for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation review committee, participants argued for the need to also delete digital data. Indigenous activists claimed it was possible to ‘entice the spirit of someone to inhabit’ photos, casts and replicas, which could then cause real-world harm. We have seen the same logic be applied to other funerary and ritual items, which have been removed from display in case they summon supernatural entities.

By censoring any and all images of human remains, we are ensuring that the next generation of forensic anthropologists and biological archaeologists are poorly trained. Worse, we are robbing everyone of the opportunity to learn more about our shared heritage. We cannot allow these woke archaeologists to bury humanity’s history.

Elizabeth Weiss is a professor of anthropology at San José State University. Her latest book is On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians and Woke Warriors.