Displaying the Dead: Assessing Agency Through Museum Linguistic Practices

Displaying the Dead: Assessing Agency Through Museum Linguistic Practices

Kelsey Jorgensen

The implied authority of public exhibitions in museums to educate is especially nuanced when considering the language categorization of human remains as sensitive objects or ‘once living persons.’ Assignment of agency through language was born from Bourdieu’s argument that words are never neutral, and connotations of language and power are co-constructed by members of a culture. This research analyzes agency through the objectification or personalization of human remains from the descriptive language museums choose to utilize in their public displays. Results from 27 museums across the United States and the United Kingdom were gathered from email surveys, telephone interviews, and online collections databases. While federal policies and contextual origins of the human remains were occasionally cited as influences, decisions deciding linguistic terminology ultimately rested with designated museum personnel. Less than half of the museums possessed written policies concerning the treatment of human remains, and only one museum had guidelines on selecting language. It is therefore unsurprising that many terms such as ‘specimen,’ ‘body,’ ‘corpse,’ ‘cadaver,’ ‘it’ and even modern nicknames held conflicting acceptability amongst museums. No significant differences occurred between US versus UK museum practices, or between comparisons of remains’ original geographical contexts. Human remains that could still have living kin were given discernible agency through possessive pronouns, while non-contemporaneous remains had no such obvious temporally linguistic divide. Objectifying language such as ‘specimen’ or ‘the bones’ was instead highly correlated to the incompleteness of the human remains. This analysis of linguistic terminology used in labeling human remains on public display can aid in understanding shifting individual, museum, and wider cultural attitudes regarding agency of the dead.