Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:39:33.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anatomy collections as “modern ruins”: The nostalgia of lonely specimens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2022

Alexandra Ion
Alexandra Ion*
Affiliation:
Institutul de Antropologie ‘Francisc I. Rainer’, Academia Română
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Argument

This text is a reflection on the fate of a special kind of scientific object - anatomy collections - and their place in contemporary times. Though the phenomenon of keeping and displaying such collections is generally dying out, those specimens which survive continue to puzzle and fascinate us. To understand the current status of such collections, and the nostalgia evoked by the specimens within them, I argue, we should approach them as modern ruins. This allows us to think of them as places of absence, pointing to unfinished lives and unfinished scientific projects. The paper begins with the story of a preserved human face from the Francis I. Rainer anatomical-anthropological collection (Bucharest), and continues by discussing the fate of that collection, and of anatomy collections more widely. Ultimately, the paper asks, what is it that we want to preserve: specimens, practices, or research philosophies?

Keywords

Human remainscollectionanthropologyFrancisc Rainerruinmodernity
Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 34 , Issue 2: The Death of Scientific Objects , June 2021 , pp. 265 - 279
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahren, Eva. 2013. “Making Space for Specimens.” In Medical Museums: Past, Present, Future, edited by Alberti, Samuel J. M. M and Hallam, Elizabeth, 102–115. London: Royal College of Surgeons of England.Google Scholar
Alberti, Samuel J. M. M. 2011. Morbid Curiosities: Medical Museums in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Oxford: OUP Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alberti, Samuel, Drew, Rose, Bienkowski, Piotr, and Chapman, Malcolm J.. 2009. “Should We Display the Dead?” Museum and Society 7 (3): 133–149.Google Scholar
Alberti, Samuel J. M. M. and Hallam, Elizabeth. 2013. Medical Museums: Past, Present, Future. London: Royal College of Surgeons of England.Google Scholar
Boym, Svetlana. 2011. “Ruinophilia: Appreciation of Ruins.” Atlas of Transformation. http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/r/ruinophilia/ruinophilia-appreciation-of-ruins-svetlana-boym.html (last accessed June 15, 2019).Google Scholar
Brenner, Erich. 2014. “Human Body Preservation-Old and New Techniques.” Journal of Anatomy 224: 316–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassman, Vicky, Odegaard, Nancy, and Powell, Joseph. (Eds.) 2007. Human Remains: Guide for Museums and Academic Institutions. Lanham: Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Conklin, Alice L. 2013. In the Museum of Man: Race, Anthropology, and Empire in France, 1850–1950. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curca, George Cristian. 2003. “Mumificare, Îmbălsămare sau Ambele? Despre Corpul Conservat Aflat în Muzeul Institutului Mina Minovici” [Mummification, Embalming, or Both? About a Preserved Body from the Museum of the Institute Mina Minovici]. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine 11 (4): 318–327.Google Scholar
Davies, Sarah R., Tybjerg, Karin, Whiteley, Louise, and Söderqvist, Thomas. 2015. “Co-Curation as Hacking: Biohackers in Copenhagen’s Medical Museion.” Curator 58: 117–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeSilvey, Caitlin. 2017. Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Domanska, Ewa. 2006. “The Material Presence of the Past.” History and Theory 45 (3): 337–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fforde, Cressida. 2004. Collecting the Dead: Archaeology and the Reburial Issue. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Galeșescu, Alexandru G. 1900. Eforia Spitalelor Civile din Bucuresci. [The Eforia of the Civil Hospitals in Bucharest]. Bucuresti: G. A. Lazareanu.Google Scholar
Hallam, Elizabeth. 2013. “Anatomopoeia.” In Making and Growing: Anthropological Studies of Organisms and Artefacts, edited by Hallam, Elizabeth and Ingold, Tim, 65–88. London/NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hallam, Elizabeth. 2016. Anatomy Museum: Death and the Body Displayed. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
Häner, Flavio. 2015. “Restoration Reconsidered: The Case of Skull Number 1-1-2/27 at the Anatomy Museum of the University of Basel.” In The Fate of Anatomical Collections, edited by Knoeff, Rina and Zwijnenberg, Robert, 247–262. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Hendriksen, Marieke M. A. 2015. Elegant Anatomy: The Eighteenth-Century Leiden Anatomical Collections. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huistra, Hieke. 2018. The Afterlife of the Leiden Anatomical Collections: Hands On, Hands Off. Abingdon/ New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ion, Alexandra. 2011. “A Brief Overview of ‘Francisc J. Rainer’ Human Osteological Collection.” Annuaire Roumaine d’Anthropologie 48: 24–32.Google Scholar
Ion, Alexandra. 2014. “Establishing Romanian Anthropology: The Foundation of the Institute of Anthropology ‘Francisc I. Rainer’.” Annuaire Roumain d’Anthropologie 51: 21–44.Google Scholar
Ion, Alexandra. 2015. “Breaking Down the Body and Putting It Back: Displaying Knowledge in the ‘Francisc Rainer’ Anthropological Collection.” Martor: The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review 20: 25–49.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Tiffany. 2011. Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections: The Crisis of Cultural Authority. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Tiffany. 2018. “Why Western Museums Should Keep Their Treasures.” https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/25/benin-bronzes-why-western-museums-should-keep-treasures (last accessed June 10, 2019).Google Scholar
Knoeff, Rina. 2015. “Touching Anatomy: On the Handling of Preparations in the Anatomical Cabinets of Frederik Ruysch (1638–1731).” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 49: 32–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knoeff, Rina, and Zwijnenberg, Robert. (Eds.) 2015. The Fate of Anatomical Collections. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 2000. “When Things Strike Back: A Possible Contribution of ‘Science Studies’ to the Social Sciences.” British Journal of Sociology 51: 107–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, Gavin. 2018. Writing the Past. New York/London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mavrokordopoulou, Kyveli. 2018. “From ‘Matter Out of Place’ to ‘Matter Out of Time’: Some Thoughts on Waste and Temporality.” Carleton Climate Commons Working Group. https://carleton.ca/climatecommons/2018/from-matter-out-of-place-to-matter-out-of-time-some-thoughts-on-waste-and-temporality/ (last accessed June 20, 2019).Google Scholar
Mitchell, Piers D., Boston, Ceridwen, Chamberlain, Andrew T., Chaplin, Simon, Chauhan, Vin, Evans, Jonathan, Fowler, Louise, Powers, Natasha, Walker, Don, Webb, Helen, and Witkin, Annsofie. 2011. “The Study of Anatomy in England from 1700 to the Early 20th Century.” Journal of Anatomy 219: 91–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rea, Naomi. 2018. “With the Jewel of Its Collection Recovered, Brazil’s National Museum Can Begin to Rebuild ‘From the Ashes’.” News.artnet.com. 22 October. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/brazil-national-museum-fossil-recovered-fire-1376647. (last accessed June 20, 2019).Google Scholar
Olsen, Bjørnar, and Pétursdóttir, Þóra. (Eds.) 2014. Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. London/ New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pamuk, Orhan. 2012a. “Museum Manifesto.” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/20/orhan-pamuk-make-museums-much-smaller (last accessed December 20, 2018).Google Scholar
Pamuk, Orhan. 2012b. The Innocence of Objects. New York: Abrams.Google Scholar
Rainer, Francisc. 1945. “Un Procede Particulier de Momification.” In L’oeuvre scientifique de Fr.Rainer 3, by Francisc I. Rainer, 7. Bucuresti: Monitorul Oficial and Imprimeriile statului.Google Scholar
Redman, Samuel J. 2016. Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums. Harvard: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Ruth. 2001. Death, Dissection and the Destitute. London: Phoenix Press.Google Scholar
Riva, Alessandro, Conti, Gabriele, Solinas, Paola, and Loy, Francesco. 2010. “The Evolution of Anatomical Illustration and Wax Modelling in Italy from the 16th to Early 19th Centuries.” Journal of Anatomy 216 (2): 209–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sappol, Michael. 2016. Review of The Fate of Anatomical Collections, edited by Rina Knoeff and Robert Zwijnenberg. Social History of Medicine 29 (4): 874–876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawday, Jonathan. 1995. The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scarre, Geoffrey. 2003. “Archaeology and Respect for the Dead.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 20:237–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sevastos, Mihail (Ed.) 1946. În Amintirea Profesorului Francisc J. Rainer [Remembering Professor Francisc J. Rainer]. Bucharest: Imprimeria Naţională.Google Scholar
Sofaer, Joana. 2006. The Body as Material Culture: A Theoretical Osteoarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sofaer, Joana. 2012. “Touching the Body: The Living and the Dead in Osteoarchaeology and the Performance art of Marina Abramović.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 45 (2): 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teslow, Tracy. 2014. Constructing Race: The Science of Bodies and Cultures in American Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tybjerg, Karin. 2017. “Exhibiting Epistemic Objects.” Museum & Society 15 (3): 269–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toma, Valentin. 2010. “From the Dissection Room to the First Anthropological Institute in Romania: Francisc I. Rainer and the ‘Bridge’ Between Anatomy and Anthropology.” Proceedings of the Romanian Academy Seria B 2: 157–165.Google Scholar
Tudor, Alexandru. 1947. L’Oeuvre scientifique de Fr. J. Rainer, 4. Bucharest: Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile statului.Google Scholar