Anatomical Collections as the Anthropological Other: Some Considerations

Abstract

Skeletal studies of anatomical collections are foundational to the scientific conceptualizations of race that remain at the center of discussions and debates about genes, health, and identity. However, they do not factor into these discussions as a historical or contemporary point of reference. I argue that this is largely due to continued investments in the production of scientific knowledge, which includes a naturalized positioning of anatomical remains as always-already research subjects. Black feminist theory and critiques of science are used to redress this shortcoming by opening up space to theorize anatomical remains in ways that belie artificial separations between the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and the arts. Sylvia Wynter’s notion of biocentricity is used to illustrate how American anatomical collections are positioned as assemblages for maintaining a racially determined scientific and social order rather than fluid historical texts and agents. Hortense Spillers’ body/flesh distinction is used to deconstruct [our] bioanthropological sense of how we “breathe life into” or “put flesh” on these skeletal remains. I conclude with examples of how these social and scientific theorizations of skeletal remains can guide analyses that reflect the complex subjectivities of the people whose remains we study, as well as our subjectivities as researchers. “Biological anthropology is the core discipline of African American Bioarchaeology, but is the least informed by historical and cultural literatures” (Blakey, Annu Rev Anthropol 30:387–422, 2001, 387). “…the racial underpinnings of scientific knowledge and the application of this knowledge to black bodies has foreclosed interdisciplinary conversations…Put differently, the racial workings of science always already subjugate and/or exclude marginalized communities, thus bifurcating our analytical approaches to race, science, knowledge and collaboration. It follows then, that the creative works of Black musicians, writers and artists are distanced from, or simply unimaginable, in science studies and the production of scientific knowledge” (McKittrick, Sylvia Wynter: On being human as praxis. Duke University Press, Durham, 2014, 149).