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British anthropological thought in colonial practice: The appropriation of Indigenous Australian bodies, 1860-1880
Within Australian historiography, the procurement of indigenous Australian ancestral remains by European scientists has generally been explained as resulting from the desire to produce evidence refining the core assumptions of Darwinian theory. I have argued elsewhere (1998, 1999) that the procurement of anatomical specimens through desecration of indigenous burial places in fact began shortly after the establishment of the penal settlement of New South Wales in 1788. It also seems clear that from the early 1880s indigenous burial places were plundered with a view to producing knowledge that would answer various questions about the origins and nature of racial difference that emerged as a consequence of the rapid and widespread assent given Darwinian evolutionary theory (Turnbull 1991).
History
Publication title
Foreign bodies: Oceania and the science of race 1750-1940Editors
Bronwen Douglas and Chris BallardPagination
109-130ISBN
9781921313998Publisher
ANU E PressPlace of publication
Canberra, AustraliaExtent
9Repository Status
- Restricted