Bones of Black children killed in MOVE bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/22/move-bombing-black-children-bones-philadelphia-princeton-pennsylvania

Remains of those killed in 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia serve as ‘case study’ in Princeton-backed course


The bones of Black children who died in 1985 after their home was bombed by Philadelphia police in a confrontation with the Black liberation group which was raising them are being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor.

It has emerged that the physical remains of one, or possibly two, of the children who were killed in the aerial bombing of the Move organization in May 1985 have been guarded over the past 36 years in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.

The institutions have held on to the heavily burned fragments, and since 2019 have been deploying them for teaching purposes without the permission of the deceased’s living parents.

To the astonishment and dismay of present-day Move members, some of the bones are being deployed as artifacts in an online course presented in the name of Princeton and hosted by the online study platform Coursera. Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology focuses on “lost personhood” – cases where an individual cannot be identified due to the decomposed condition of their remains...

I can't even...

[soothsayer]

1. Jeezus. That is beyond disrespectful.

[Poeraria]

2. Not at all.

I'm an Archaeologist with Anthropology degrees and human remains are a valuable source of information. My student-colleagues and I all pledged our remains to the Bone Farm at the University of Tennessee. Using remains contrary to wishes is one thing, and that would be disrespectful (and may be illegal), but this is likely a case of there being no one to take custody or responsibility for the remains so they went to a teaching institution.

[padah513]

4. I agree with the poster.

These were children who through no fault of their own died in a fire caused by a bomb dropped from a helicopter. It is disrespectful.

[Poeraria]

7. "Were" is the key word.

The tragedy is made a little less tragic if some good can come of it. Or I guess they could have become part of the soil...

[whathehell]

9. They should have sought permission from the families

of the children. Without that it is disrespectful.

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. Bullshit. UPenn and Princeton couldn't be arsed to look for the girls' parents...

...and the video instructor knows exactly wher the remains came from.

[TDale313]

6. ...

“The institutions have held on to the heavily burned fragments, and since 2019 have been deploying them for teaching purposes without the permission of the deceased’s living parents.”

[Bayard]

3. Native American remains and relics have been displayed for years

They can't have peace, even in death.

[Poeraria]

8. Native American remains can no longer be displayed either actually or through photos

without specific permission per the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and permission is rarely given.

[Bayard]

10. Thanks for the info!