Cadavers, Museums and Bones, oh my!

*As originally published in 2011*

So even though I say I have an idea for a new blog in my last blog doesn't actually mean I will ever do any of those posts. Like today I think I will blog a little bit about cadavers, museums and bones. Believe it or not, these are some of my favorite subjects. I am about to finish up a degree in Anthropology and I would love nothing more than to work in a museum someday and specialize in human remains. I have about three years experience in museums as well as osteological (human bones), mummified, and cadaver experience. I understand that this is an odd set of skills and experiences to put on a resume, but hey, someone has to do it!

This might actually be a bit of a rant today because I am extremely pissed at the medical community as a whole. You see, in anthropology/archaeology, we are taught and drilled over and over how to respectfully study and document human remains. There are rules for handling the remains, documenting/photographing/drawing remains, and storing remains. If you name it, there is a rule, whether written or not, somewhere out there in the anthropological world for human remains. And, of course, this is the way it should be. The remains are actual people who deserve actual respect regardless if they are individuals who donated their body's to science or if they are 5000 year old individuals happened upon during a hike in the Alps (more on the Kenniwick man in a later post).

On the flip side, in the medical community students are taught that cadavers are empty shells who are used for practice. Rather make a mistake on a dead guy than one who would like to wake up when you finish with them. Even thought this reasoning is valid, it still really bothers me. The other day when I was working in a cadaver lab, my lab instructor came in and dropped her book on one of the cadavers as if it were a table under the body bag and not a person. I was mortified! Then she continued to mix up the skulls and mandibles until reuniting the correct skull with the correct mandible was next to impossible. By the time my lab time was finished I was through the roof. Her behavior was unquestionable wrong, not to mention the fact that she only behaved this way because that is how she was taught by her lab instructor.

I really feel very strongly about the need for a more anthropological approach to medicine. If we cannot understand a persons culture and appreciate their worth as an individual (even after death) then I feel all is lost. We cannot remove the humanistic side to studying humans with out grave affects.

I do understand that some people have a hard time with human remains. I have also know several people who cannot deal with remains unless they emotionally and (arguably) humanisticly detach themselves from the remains. But these types of jobs are not for everyone because of this.

I am not going to lie. The first time I worked with human remains was in a museum setting and when I was done I went home and cried for hours. It was a small child and I was simply performing a routine check to make sure nothing had gone wrong with the remains while in a transitioning stage at the museum. I laid in bed and sobbed for this child. This child was removed from her original resting place, was removed from her parents and family, and this child had died so young. The next morning I went into the museum with a prayer in my heart and faced the remains again. This time I did not have such an emotional reaction but rather I was able to work and still keep the realization that this was a person who lived a life and had people who loved them and I should show them all the respect I would want for myself and my loved ones.

Your first time is hard, but you learn to handle each situation handed to you. For those who cannot do so should seriously consider another profession.