France to repatriate human remains in museums back to their homelands

 

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

    France's parliament has passed a bill that will allows for human remains currently stored in their museums to be returned to their countries of origin for "funeral purposes, " according to Radio France Internationale. The bill comes after years of debate over the ethics of keeping body parts in French cultural inventories. 

    According to RFI's article: 

The bill is to facilitate France returning the human remains of Aboriginals to Australia, as well as the skeleton of an indigenous Tehuelche chief to his descendants in Argentina.

Madagascar has asked for three skulls of its Sakalava people to be brought home, including one it says is that of a king decapitated in 1897 during an attack by French colonial forces to quash a rebellion.

Several hundred French institutions, including museums and universities, are thought to have human remains in their collections.

 

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