engleski

The Body as Flesh: The Paradox of “Breathing Life” into Bodies in US-Based Anatomical Collections

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 bring attention to how this investment lends to colonized research practices. 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.

Decolonization, Anatomical Collections

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