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Skeletons in the cupboard: anthropology and the diversity debate

Posted by Ciaran Walsh on November 24, 2020 – 7:24 pm
Filed under Curatorial Projects
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Cultural diversity in universities has been pushed to the top of the agenda by the Black Lives Matter movement and TCD has taken the its first steps towards a decolonised campus … maybe.

College authorities are considering renaming the Berkeley Library because Berkeley was a slaver: he enslaved four people on his plantation in Rhode Islands in the 1700s. Decolonising the campus will involve more than renaming a building or two. It may involve dismantling the Anthropological Collection in the ‘Old’ Anatomy Museum in line with international calls for the decolonisation of museums that hold culturally sensitive material.

Alfred Cort Haddon and Andrew Francis Dixon stole thirteen crania from a burial ground on Inishbofin Islands and TCD acquired the skulls in 1892.

The Anthropological Collection in TCD holds 24 crania stolen from burial grounds in the west of Ireland in 1890, making it one of the most culturally sensitive collection in the context of calls for western museums “to return objects looted in the violent days of empire.” (The Guardian).

Watch this space!

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STORYTELLING FESTIVAL LAUNCHES BUSY AUTUMN SCHEDULE FOR CURATOR.IE



curator.ie finds oldest surviving photo of Skellig



stolen skulls start the long journey home to Inishbofin



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