Bulletin 375
This volume of the Royal Tropical Institute's Bulletin series describes and discusses the collection of human remains kept in Amsterdam's Tropenmuseum. It is based on an inventory of the museum's 'physical anthropological' collection, collected between 1915 and 1964, and also refers to objects made from, or with, human remains, as well as to anthropological photographs, field notes and other archival sources. The idea behind this Bulletin is to contribute to the debate on the significance of physical anthropological collections kept in museums around the world, taking the Tropenmuseum collection as a case in point. Why did the collections develop? What was their significance and what is their significance today? Who is the rightful owner? Who has, or should have, the authority to make decisions regarding the future of these collections, including where they should end up? For the Tropenmuseum, these are questions of great relevance, especially to the relationship between cultural and physical anthropology. They only can be answered in a dialogue between various stakeholders. This Bulletin is intended to be a starting point for such a dialogue.