Les ancêtres sous vitrine: revendications postmodernes et représentation des restes humains préhistoriques dans les musées. Le cas britannique

This article examines contemporary challenges to the exhibition and scientific study of prehistoric human remains in British museums, driven by pseudo-nativist ideologies and posthumanist trends like new materialism. While indigenous descendant groups justly reclaim ancestrally-linked remains based on demonstrable biological continuity, neo-pagan claims of ‘spiritual ancestry’ lack legitimacy. Posthumanist challenges risk undermining science’s interpretive authority over the material world, while broader Western sensitivities demand sanitized displays. Examining archaeology’s positivist foundations and legal precedents, we argue for upholding scientific authority over irrational belief systems in interpreting these material sources of human history.