The following article
was submitted by (Dra.) Irina Podgorny,
Directora IES, La Plata, Argentina (podgorny@criba.edu.ar
(no attachments), ipodgo@isis.unlp.edu.ar).
It was the editorial in the last issue of
Ciencia Hoy (Vol. 9 (51):10-11, 1999, Buenos
Aires), a journal devoted to scientific
extension. Ciencia Hoy is also a non-profit
organization which aims at promoting a)
scientific research in Argentina and Uruguay
and the Latin American exchanges, and b)
public interest in science and culture.
It is worthy of note that the editorial
board is composed by scholars and university
professors who devote their time to this
effort. The article was a response to the
amazingly amount of mass-media publicity
that surrounded the recent discoveries of
"Inca mummies in the Andes". The
article was translated by Maria Delores
Tobias.
There is a general agreement that certain
fields of scientific research, like the
biomedical disciplines that experiment with
human beings, require a careful adjustment
to particular and specific ethical principles.
Although they are not the only ones whose
praxis should be carried out within an ethical
framework, their transgression might result
in important consequences and might greatly
affect society. The agencies for the promotion
of the academic activity generally make
public the ethical criteria which they consider
necessary to the investigation. In this
way in Canada, for example, the three National
Councils of Scientific Development (Medical
Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council and Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council) disseminated
a set of general criteria under the heading
"Integrity in Research and Scholarship:
a Tri-Council Policy Statement, January
1994".
In addition to principles shared by all
the disciplines are those that apply specifically
to each one of them. The particular issue
that we would like to discuss in this connection
is that of anthropological research. Our
concern is related to certain events which
gained public attention recently after having
been spread by a massive press. We refer
to the discovery of mummified human remains
in the Andean summits of Northwest Argentina
by a crew of archaeologists financed by
the National Geographic Society of the United
States, a society without commercial purposes
known for its worldwide magazine. The news
identified among the people responsible
for the discovery, a North American researcher
that works in the Andean region and an Argentine
archaeologist that works as a scholarship
holder of the CONICET at the UBA institute
in Tilcara. The press put emphasis on the
feat of mountaineering, which involved excavations
to find buried human remains often located
at more than 6000 meters above sea level
in a region that constitutes "an archaeological
deposit of worldwide importance", and
on macabre details such as the state of
conservation and the attire of the corpses,
which were well illustrated with pictures
and sketches. In what appears to have been
an isolated reaction, a reader of La Nacion
newspaper wrote a letter published on April
13th, expressing "astonishment for
the treatment that the remains had been
given"; he added that they belong to
people of ancient cultures, who had been
buried according to ceremonies and beliefs
as respectable and exotic as current ones
could be in a number of years. The reader
claimed that this treatment of the remains
had to do with the fact that these were
bones that belonged to American Indians.
Their removal was thus another episode in
the history of "discrimination, haughtiness
and contempt with which these cultures had
been treated." In order to give strength
to his argument, he posed the following
question: "Why not exhibit for both
educational reasons and curiosity any last
century ancestor of archaeologists and directors
of museums together with the personal objects
with which they were buried?"
The arguments of the letter published in
La Nacion are not only historically well-founded
on respect for the human rights, but also
on their relation to ethic principles relevant
to archaeological and anthropological research
that nobody took into consideration. In
a worldwide archaeological Congress held
in Barquisimento, Venezuela, a number of
criteria were approved, the application
of which we think is essential. Three of
these criteria are particularly important
to the case of the Andean mummies we have
referred to and support the need for archaeologists
to:
- obtain informed consent from representatives
of the indigenous people whose cultural
legacy will be subjected to research;
- guarantee that the results of their
research will be presented with deference
and respect towards indigenous people;
and
- not remove the human remains of indigenous
people without their express approval.
We do not know whether the first or third
of these principles were taken into account,
but the news to which we are guided do not
seem to be very optimistic on this score.
Be that as it may, there is no doubt that
intentionally or not, owing to ignorance,
frivolity, or some other reason we do not
know about, the second principle was definitely
not complied with. There was an incursion,
a shameless exhibition of human remains
which should have been treated with more
respect, and a lack of consideration, verging
on contempt, for the humanity of the members
of the ancient indigenous culture who buried
them. We do not intend to set ourselves
up as judges but to attempt to create an
awareness of the need to seriously apply
and carefully handle ethics in cases such
as the one we are analyzing.
Similar situations have arisen with human
remains, artifacts and buildings of indigenous
groups in the United States. Archaeologists
have intensely discussed the way in which
ethical principles similar to the ones presented
above should be applied, and have widely
disseminate them together with the debate
for the general benefit of the public, which
in turn joined the debate. For instance,
the Smithsonian Institution has faced and
settled many situations of this kind, sometimes
satisfactorily and sometimes not. Nevertheless,
in the USA, society with scientists in the
lead has faced these difficult matters both
maturely and with dignity. It could have
occasionally been wrong, but it has always
assumed its responsibility.
We are aware that those principles are
frequently difficult to apply, especially
when remains are more ancient, amongst other
reasons because people may disagree as to
who the descendants of the indigenous people
being studied are. Moreover, more than once,
conflicts have arisen among rival groups
who disputed the remains and often, fights
for political power or economic interests
were concealed behind confrontations about
human remains. But these principles are
valid independently of the difficulty of
their application or their abuse. A question
that should be always asked, and the answer
to which should be provided to the press
by archaeologists working on the issue,
is what important scientific reason justifies
the manipulation of ancient tombs and which
measures had been taken to treat them with
respect. Not a word was heard about it in
the case of the Andean mummies.
In various places in Argentina, indigenous
groups have started to show concern over
these issues as they have become aware of
their state of exclusion. In 1992, the remains
of the cacique Incayal were claimed in court
from the Museo of La Plata. The verdict
authorized the institution to continue to
keep the bones that had been inventoried
and the ones that were not, were given back
and buried in the locality of Tecka, Chubut.
We have news about similar claims in Rawson,
Chubut (where there is doubt as to the real
link between the claimants and the ethnic
group to which the remains belong), and
La Pampa (where the remains of cacique Yanquetruz
are claimed). In Lorohuasi, Catamarca, human
remains found by employees of National Highway
were studied and returned to the community
to be exhibited, after an agreement that
resulted from a negotiation between provincial
and local authorities. In 1997, a statement
was submitted to the national authorities
through a National Forum establishing the
need for all scientific research to be carried
out with the free consent of informed communities
and for the results to be returned to those
communities.
Last, is precisely what the ethical frameworks
of the international community postulate.
It is not only necessary for Argentine archaeologists
and anthropologists to make an effort to
respect, spread and debate the way in which
these principles can be applied, but also
to insure that the media will not put the
matter aside. We hope that the case of the
Andean mummies can be used at least to make
people become aware of the matters at issue. |
World
Archaeological Bulletin