Tracing the history of Hong Kong's skeletal collections and their use in bioanthropology and forensic anthropology

Abstract

<p> A medical skeletal collection was established for research and teaching purposes at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Dentistry in 2017. Most of the human remains derive from unclaimed southern Chinese individuals exhumed from local cemeteries. Prior to their systematic cleaning and curation, these cranial and postcranial remains could be found across various departments, faculties, offices and laboratories, and their potential for data collection was noticed by both local and foreign scientists. This presentation covers an investigation of who accessed these collections, for what purpose they accessed the bones for, and what a historical-ethical perspective may illuminate about data collection practices in decades prior. We will also consider where the datasets have gone since initial data collection, and how discussions on ethics have evolved over time with regards to Asian human remains. The Human Bone Collection in Hong Kong is one of many important Asian assemblages historically accessed for biological data (either occasionally or frequently). It has become evermore important to consider the ethics involved in using historical legacy data taken from Asian ancestral remains, in our efforts to decolonize and promote moral principles in the anthropological sciences.</p>