British Aborigines demand bones

Changes to the British law regarding the retention of human remains have led to a number of repatriation claims, the most high profile being from a Tasmanian group claiming skeletons from the Natural History Museum (discussed here).

Last month I joked that this change in the law could lead to all sorts of claims – the British Museum’s gallery of Egyptian mummies being emptied; the county of Cheshire calling for the restoration and reburial of Lindow Man. Well that’s not so far from reality. The new guidelines are attracting the interest of indigenous groups overseas, but also ’indigenous’ neo-pagans in Britain. The Guardian reports:

British pagan groups are increasingly asking for human remains and grave goods from pre-Christian burials to be returned to them as well. The presence of what they see as their ancestors in dusty drawers or under harsh display lights is an affront to their religion. To them, the bones are living beings, whose existence is bound up with their religious descendants and the sacred land.