When Ales Hrdlicka died in 1943 at the age of 74, newspapers mourned his death and he was hailed as America’s leading anthropologist. In one of his obituaries he was described as “one of the world’s foremost authorities on the history and development of mankind.” Amidst all the praise, there were also colleagues in the field of anthropology who began to question his methods, his attitude toward indigenous communities, Native Americans, and black people, groups on which he had focused his studies, and the collection of human remains and brains without any authorization or using subterfuge.
He paid for skeletons and that is why “they called him Doctor Bones.” For four decades he led the anthropology division of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum complex. This institution, as Hrdlicka’s macabre legacy, still stores 30,700 body parts, including 255 brains, according to an investigation by The Washington Post. About 70% of that set was collected under his command.
All this work led to him being considered an expert on race and human variations. Immigrating as a child with his parents from the present-day Czech Republic, he came to New York and early in his career expressed an obsession with race.
He had the belief that by collecting body parts he could discover the origin of the peoples of America. He focused on collecting brains and pelvises from 1903 until his death. After his death, however, a clear sentiment of racism spread towards his work.
The search for bones was carried out in poor areas and countries. His collection had few white pieces, which he considered a superior race, in contrast to the blacks, the lowest rank and almost inhuman. “They are a problem for the United States,” he wrote. When it was suggested that in time the majority of the population could be a mixture of the black and white races, he replied that this should not be dominant because “blacks lack brains and other necessary qualities.”
His theories have been thoroughly discredited, but the Smithsonian, despite its act of contrition, still harbors numerous bones of shame.
Most of the remains were removed from cemeteries, battlefields, hospitals and morgues in more than 80 countries without the consent of the families. The researchers, or their hires, looted graves or preyed on people with no immediate relatives. Many come from slavery or the annihilation of natives.
The Post’s investigation indicates that the Smithsonian accumulates a long delay in returning the remains to their descendants.
Of his collection of brains, for example, only four have been returned. But it must also be borne in mind that the delivery of the remains requires a request from the next of kin. This makes the operation more complicated since many possible interested parties are unaware of the existence of the collection or even that their relatives were stripped of their remains.
The debate on the hoarding of human remains as museum objects has been raised in the United States for some time as another element of racial inequality. The Smithsonian is the one that houses the largest collection, but there are many other prestigious institutions, such as Harvard University, which has many “human bones” that have considered returning or have started the process.
“It’s really amazing the degree to which these museums suggest the exploitation of non-white bodies, both in terms of science and display, without any authorization,” said Samuel J. Redman, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. and author of the book Bone rooms, in which he dissected the collections of human remains.
“We have to be more critical when approaching these collections, as educators, as researchers or as the public that goes to see them. These issues are reaching a historic tipping point,” he adds. “Those collections cause harm to people today and those remains have to be returned to their home,” he said.
The Smithsonian, which already apologized last April, has promised to identify the 225 brains it keeps. A team of fifteen experts, formed in May, has to present a report with recommendations at the end of the year.
Perhaps one of the suggestions is related to the website of this institution. Despite his racist theories and the fact that he also supported eugenics, Dr. Huesos is listed as “one of the most prominent anthropologists in the world.”
