Hopefully more curators and custodians of repositories of human skeletal remains will attempt to redress some of the wrongs of the past.
Human evolution is typically depicted with a progressive whitening of the skin, despite a lack of evidence to support it.
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov/Wikimedia Commons
From Aristotle to Darwin, inaccurate and biased narratives in science not only reproduce these biases in future generations but also perpetuate the discrimination they are used to justify.
Anatomist and anthropologist Matthew Drennan in his anthropology laboratory at the University of Cape Town in 1931.
Cape Argus, 27 August 1931
Scientists themselves seemed to be unaware that their lack of comment on the absurdity of apartheid was a statement in itself.
In the nineteenth century, improved breeds and new agricultural technology underpinned exports of ostrich feathers from South Africa.
powerofforever/iStock/Getty Images Plus
This book is a history of individuals, ideas and institutions that were at the fulcrum of important scientific developments.
Museums across the U.S., including at Harvard University, collected human remains, which were often displayed to the public.
Smith Collection/Gado/Archive Photos via Getty Images
Proposed legislation would identify and protect African American cemeteries. But it wouldn’t cover the remains of thousands of Black people in museum collections.
W.E.B. Du Bois in his office at The Crisis in New York City, 1925.
W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
As editor of the magazine for 24 years, Du Bois featured articles about biology, evolution, archaeology in Africa and more to refute the rampant scientific racism of the early 20th century.
The belief that ancient Egyptians needed help from supernatural beings to built the Giza pyramids relies, unavoidably, on racism and colonial attitudes.
Children gather around a fossil skull at a South African museum.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
As an intellectual history of the disciplines of paleontology and paleoanthropology, Kuljan’s book is especially adept at narrating the interwoven connections between science and power.
Alie Fataar, photographed during his exile in Zambia, was a revolutionary teacher.
Courtesy of Alie Fataar
Yunus Omar, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Alie Fataar exemplifies the type of teacher South Africa sorely requires today if its classrooms are to be used to develop a new generation of critical, engaged students.
This clay facial reconstruction of Kennewick Man, carefully sculpted around the morphological features of his skull, suggests how he may have looked alive nearly 9,000 years ago.
Brittney Tatchell, Smithsonian Institution
A 9,000-year-old skeleton became a high-profile and highly contested case for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. How do we respectfully deal with ancient human remains?
A morbid curiosity makes it hard not to be fascinated.
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You don’t have to be a physician or anatomist to be curious about how bodies work. Exhibits of dead human specimens have been around for quite a while – capitalizing on our fascination with death.
Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that people across the world are genetic refugees from Africa.
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Despite science refuting the existence of different human races, people have used “race” throughout history to divide and denigrate certain people while promoting their claims of superiority.