Culturally Unidentifiable Remains
Definition
Human remains in US museum and agency collections whose cultural affiliation with any present-day tribe cannot be established by the preponderance-of-evidence standard. The 2010 NAGPRA amendments require these to be offered for repatriation to the tribe or organisation with the most likely geographic affiliation, rather than indefinitely retained.
- Governing rule
- 2010 NAGPRA amendments, 43 CFR 10.11
- Prior default
- Indefinite retention by the holding institution
- New requirement
- Offer to tribe with most likely geographic affiliation
- Distinct from
- Remains with an established cultural affiliation
Common questions
Why were these remains left unclaimed for so long?+
Before the 2010 rule, NAGPRA only compelled repatriation once cultural affiliation was proven, so remains that failed that test simply stayed in collections indefinitely with no disposition pathway.
What happens if more than one tribe has a plausible geographic claim?+
The holding institution consults with all tribes that occupied the region historically and works out priority or joint disposition, rather than defaulting to a single claimant automatically.
Related terms
- Bass Donated Skeletal Collection
- A consent-based skeletal collection of over 1,750 individuals at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, established by William Bass in 1981. All individuals...
- Cultural Affiliation (NAGPRA)
- The link, established by a preponderance of evidence, between a present-day tribe or Native Hawaiian organisation and human remains or cultural items...
- De Montfort Precedent (2018)
- The return by De Montfort University Leicester of skeletal remains (Asaru-Ojo) to the Ogoni community in Nigeria, conducted voluntarily under the Human...
- Hamann-Todd Collection
- A skeletal reference collection of approximately 3,100 individuals at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, accumulated 1893 to 1939 from unclaimed bodies...
- NAGPRA
- The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Public Law 101-601, 1990), a US federal statute requiring museums and federal agencies to...
- Population Affinity
- The preferred modern forensic-anthropological term for the relationship between an unidentified individual's skeletal morphology and a modern reference population. Replaces the older...
- Terry Collection
- A documented skeletal collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC), assembled from cadavers donated to Washington University's anatomy...
- UNDRIP
- The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/RES/61/295, 2007), adopted by 143 states. Articles 11, 12, and 31 affirm indigenous...
- Willed-Body Donation
- The voluntary, pre-mortem consent by an individual to donate their remains to a specific research programme after death. Distinguished from anatomical donation...