#jonsbones

While some of these specimens can be repatriated to living descendants through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), others, regardless of ancestry, will eventually be de-accessioned from institutions and change ownership through various means. For those who do not want skeletal specimens second hand, a thriving online market persists. Websites like Skulls Unlimited and JonsBones will sell to anyone while other platforms like eBay and Instagram host anonymous sales or advertisements of online stores to buy skeletal material, ranging from teaching specimens to “tribal” artifacts (Licata et al. 2020). Skulls Unlimited claims “commitment to ethical sourcing” but does not specify if this applies to their human or animal collections and does not go into further detail on their products’ respective pages. JonsBones admonishes the notion of ethical sourcing as being too vague of a concept, so they invented their own vague concept of “responsible sourcing”. It is somehow better because “our bones are certified bones from the medical trade.” (Ferry, Jon). If this is the same “medical trade” that benefited from 18th and 19th century antiquarianism, grave robbing, and before India’s ban of trading human remains is unclear.

What happens to these remains once in the hands of private ownership is dubious at best. Some people collect “oddities” that range from skeletal remains belonging to humans, non-humans, to the stereotypical specimen in a jar of formaldehyde for their display. This ethically dubious enterprise does not stop at home and office décor. Simply searching the terms “real human bone jewelry” or a similar combination, will lead to online stores selling such items. Curiosities from the 5th Corner, sells a variety of items made from modified human remains, allegedly from remains “over 100 years old”. However, if institutions like the National Museum of Natural History or numerous universities have trouble keeping track of their specimens’ provenance, why should I trust this website? Not to mention remains this old, if they are, should be in an archaeological collection supervised and conserved by competent professionals educated and trained to do so.

There is no shortage of cadaver capers. Southern Nevada Donor Services offers free cremation for families in exchange for donating their deceased loved one under the guise of “advanced medical studies.” However, in 2015 complaints of smells, bloody boxes in dumpsters, and one employee thawing out a frozen human torso with a garden hose (Grow and Shiffman, 2017) reveals the heinous origin of some of these contemporary skeletons.

A recurring theme of apathy stands at the forefront of this issue. These sellers all push a specific narrative to justify their businesses. Curiosities from the 5th Corner responds to the question of if this practice is disrespectful with: “My personal opinion is that you can only disrespect the living.” I find this disingenuous as with the rest of the FAQ this quote is taken from. A similar store, Death Isn’t the End, discusses the origin of their skeletons and other opinions; “I have come across skulls over the years that have been grossly mistreated and damaged, whether it be from accidental drops, occult type ceremony or even malicious intent. These pieces are sometimes very old or some are new and vary in history from museum or private collections to medical schools or colleges and high school science classes and they always made me sad for the destruction of a wonderful thing and for the disrespect of the person it once was.” Somehow creating jewelry from these acquired specimens isn’t a destructive nor disrespectful process, but the most revealing and audacious quote in their about me page is: “I felt that I had found a way to take this neglected and broken skull and give it back respect.”

JonsBones takes this presumptuous attitude farther by disguising their enterprise as educational and equitable because “not everyone has the same access to museums, medical collections, or artifacts that explain and cultivate the science behind bones” and “we actively bridge the gap between the anthropological community and the general public to make osteology more approachable.” The applied anthropological thing to do, in my undergrad opinion, is to indeed give equitable access. However, JonsBones is a store that sells items at price tags equitable only to the wealthy, a demographic that has no shortage of educational access. Certainly, with the profits gained from sales of these items and admission to The Bone Museum, JonsBones could donate to chronically underfunded school districts or fund scholarships for students pursuing biological anthropology, forensics, and fields that utilize human osteology. Unfortunately, this will not happen because it is more profitable to sell and display “responsibly sourced” human remains.

To respond to Curiosities from the 5th Corner’s opinion, this does disrespect the living. It disrespects living descendants, marginalized populations, and continues to feed a market with already dubious tactics and precarious origins as discussed previously. In a majority capitalist world that pushes boundaries in the pursuit of profit with little to no oversight, the commodification of the human body will not stop with one’s bones at the end of a natural lifespan. This fact has already played out historically with the 19th century duo William Burke and William Hare who murdered an estimated sixteen people to sell their bodies to Dr. Robert Knox’s anatomy school (University of Edinburgh).

 Licata, Marta et al. “Study, conservation and exhibition of human remains: the need of a bioethical perspective.” Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis vol. 91,4 e2020110. 7 Oct. 2020, doi:10.23750/abm.v91i4.9674

Potter, Lisa. “Ethical Considerations for Human Remains.” https://attheu.utah.edu, University of Utah, 15 May 2023, https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/ethical-considerations-for-human-remains/.