ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the human skeletal remains. In recent years it has become relatively commonplace to hear of skeletal remains that had been held by an anatomy department, medical school, or museum for many years having been returned to tribes for subsequent reburial. The Australian Archaeological Association has issued a policy supporting the transfer of post-1788 remains to communities. A possible conclusion to draw from these developments is that there is considerable tension between scientific interest and the provision of valuable clues to humanity's past, and the sacred feelings and beliefs of indigenous peoples. Acknowledgement of the autonomy of indigenous peoples invests in them responsibility for deciding what is done to skeletal material. Acceptance of moral complicity and its consequences, leads to an emphasis on past atrocities, with serious ethical implications for the professions implicated in atrocities, especially anthropologists.
