Global Ancestors is a collection of papers which reflect on modern museological responses to the often complex and emotive relationship that people have with the ancestors and objects which they created. Set out in three broad themes, the first collection of papers explore how indigenous peoples are represented in museums in Panama and China and how more can be gained by working with indigenous communities to further our understanding of the ancestors. The second section examines changes in British and American museological thinking regarding the repatriation of human remains and objects to indigenous peoples, focussing in particular on the impact of legislation on western institutions and the expectations of indigenous communities and alternative religious groups. These issues are explored through case studies involving material from the British Museum and Glasgow Museum. The final section explores the ways in which archaeologists and indigenous communities interact. These chapters illustrate, through case studies from South Africa, Finland and Canada, how both groups have worked together for their mutual benefit or to change the majority viewpoint. Global Ancestors represents the beginnings of a more inclusive and shared understanding between different constituencies and points the way forward to a time when we can consider the ancestors truly global ."

Working with human remains raises a whole host of ethical issues, from how the remains are used to how and where they are stored. Over recent years, attitudes towards repatriation and reburial have changed considerably and there are now laws in many countries to facilitate or compel the return of remains to claimant communities. Such changes have also brought about new ways of working with and caring for human remains, while enabling their ongoing use in research projects. This has often meant a reevaluation of working practices for both the curation of remains and in providing access to them. This volume will look at the issues and difficulties inherent in holding human remains with global origins, and how diverse institutions and countries have tackled these issues. Essential reading for advanced students in biological anthropology, museum studies, archaeology and anthropology, as well as museum curators, researchers and other professionals.

Working with human remains raises a whole host of ethical issues, from how the remains are used to how and where they are stored. Over recent years, attitudes towards repatriation and reburial have changed considerably and there are now laws in many countries to facilitate or compel the return of remains to claimant communities. Such changes have also brought about new ways of working with and caring for human remains, while enabling their ongoing use in research projects. This has often meant a reevaluation of working practices for both the curation of remains and in providing access to them. This volume will look at the issues and difficulties inherent in holding human remains with global origins, and how diverse institutions and countries have tackled these issues. Essential reading for advanced students in biological anthropology, museum studies, archaeology and anthropology, as well as museum curators, researchers and other professionals.

The Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) held at the University of Reading in 2007. Contents: 1) A life course perspective of growing up in medieval London: evidence of sub-adult health from St Mary Spital (London) (Rebecca Redfern and Don Walker); 2) Preservation of non-adult long bones from an almshouse cemetery in the United States dating to the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries (Colleen Milligan, Jessica Zotcavage and Norman Sullivan); 3) Childhood oral health: dental palaeopathology of Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt. A preliminary investigation (Stephanie Shukrum and JE Molto); 4) Skeletal manifestation of non-adult scurvy from early medieval Northumbria: the Black Gate cemetery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Diana Mahoney-Swales and Pia Nystrom); 5) Infantile cortical hyperostosis: cases, causes and contradictions (Mary Lewis and Rebecca Gowland); 6) Biological Anthropology Tuberculosis of the hip in the Victorian Britain (Benjamin Clarke and Piers Mitchell); 7) The re-analysis of Iron Age human skeletal material from Winnall Down (Justine Tracey); 8) Can we estimate post-mortem interval from an individual body part? A field study using sus scrofa (Branka Franicevec and Robert Pastor); 9) The expression of asymmetry in hand bones from the medieval cemetery at Ecija, Spain (Lisa Cashmore and Sonia Zakrezewski); 10) Returning remains: a curator's view (Quinton Carroll); 11) Authority and decision making over British human remains: issues and challenges (Piotr Bienkowski and Malcolm Chapman); 12) Ethical dimensions of reburial, retention and repatriation of archaeological human remains: a British perspective (Simon Mays and Martin Smith); 13) The problem of provenace: inaccuracies, changes and misconceptions (Margaret Clegg); 14) Native American human remains in UK collections: implications of NAGPRA to consultation, repatriation, and policy development (Myra J Giesen); 15) Repatriation - a view from the receiving end: New Zealand (Nancy Tayles).

These fourteen conference papers report on osteoarchaeological evidence from sites across Britain and, in addition to discussing what this material reveals about past populations, propose methodologies for handling and analysing old bone and for understanding the deposition processes. The largely technical papers cover such subjects as: the effects of taphonomy and funerary practices on the state of preservation of human remains; why post-mortem features should not be ignored; bacterial growth and the preservation of the dead; burial in Irish megalithic tombs; the deplacement and destruction of skeletal remains in early medieval Wessex; post-medieval Tallow Hill Cemetery in Worcester; late Neolithic skeletal remains from Raven Scar Cave in the Yorkshire Dales; evidence of Paget's disease at Norton Priory in Cheshire; northwest European bog bodies; gender roles among the hunter-gatherers of Florida; local human evolution in the Pampas of Argentina; remains from the Neolithic tombs of Orkney; biological asymmetry in humans; variations in the occipital bone; estimating age at death.