This is an excerpt from a essay on the ethics of private ownership of human remains not for educational, conservation ship, or cultural practices.
The ethical dilemmas surrounding ownership of human remains primarily stem from the lack of informed consent and the exploitation of marginalized communities. Remains were collected from grave robbing or exploited poor families who could not afford to bury their deceased loved ones, usually under the guise of scientific inquiry to further our understanding of the human condition (Potter 2023). One major institution, the National Museum of Natural History, holds over 30,000 human remains, many of which lack clear documentation of their origins (Potter 2023). Poor record keeping and high personnel turnover contribute to the difficulty of addressing the origins of these remains, complicating efforts to ensure ethical stewardship (Licata et al. 2020).
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/.
“Burke and Hare.” The University of Edinburgh, https://medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/about/history/burke-and-hare. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.
Me reading the notes on the JonsBones post trying not to reblog everyone who is like "JonsBones is so good and pure uwu" and correct them:
That idiot is not an anatomist, professionally trained, involved in education, or an osteologist. He's a dude who profits off of human suffering without even *acknowledging* the ethical concerns involved in the trade of human remains. He's a fucking *artist*, not a scientist, and he is a charlatan.
If your interested in the tiktok bone guy heres a thread I made about it when I first stumbled upon the guy
A couple updates. I did some cursory research about how a person gets human fucking bones and basically before the 1970s it was hard to make human teaching skeletons out of plastic so people relied on the real thing. This lead to the Indian bone trade where Europeans would buy questionable scourced human skeletons from India. Now a lot of people buy them as "antiques". Idk if this is how he got the bones but its my guess.. Again this is cursory research and im currently on my break at work so if anyone has more info/sources feel free to add.
Oh hey, have you seen this situation with this tiktok bone seller person? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAIy4pUzK7A
Yes! I also have a (kinda popular, animal-focused) bone account on TikTok called RollBones, and I write a lot about human remains. (My Nat Geo article)
The video you linked seems well-researched and it gives a deep look into what’s going on! There also are some just-your-opinion moments and factual mistakes (ie no, you cannot sell your own body, only other peoples’)
For those of you who want to watch the original video that is causing the new controversy, it's here.
TLDR: Someone has been buying/selling a very large collection of human bones, and people are commenting on the fact that he said they're legal.
My thoughts:
1. Jon has been trading human bones doing this for years, very publicly, and shows his collection in a lot of videos. Nothing new has happened except people reacting.
2. The last round of human bone discourse was pretty insufferable. Conversations literally went like this:
"Owning human bones is legal in most US states."
"NO IT’S NOT! Trust me, my baseless assumptions are more important than facts! How dare you correct me, my ego is so fragile that learning new information is an assault on my pride! A bone haver got in legal trouble and I never read the article as to what the charge was, so I'll assume it was for having bones. Now I shall move the goalpost: Saying that it's legal is the same thing as defending the practice on ethical grounds! Also my personal ick factor should be the defining factor of whether having bones is disrespectful or not!"
3. But this round of discourse seems much better?? Is the internet growing up? Because this time people are not trying to correct someone who has been working in this field for years and knows the laws way better than you. This time people are arguing on ethical and contextual grounds using facts and expert opinion and history. For instance, the fact that no human has consented to allow the med facility to sell/give away the bones once they're done. Or the historical exploitation of the poor (Read: Inside India's Underground Trade in Human Remains.) Or the fact that modern body brokers have basically no regulation and yes, you could donate your body today and have it on a tattoo shop shelf in a few months. (Read: The Body Trade: Cashing in on The Donated Dead.) Or the Indonesian Dayak skulls that are still carved and imported *specifically* for westerners to buy.
Also because there is no regulatory agency requiring paperwork, it's difficult to prove provenance of human remains. They're probably not murder victims but you could encounter something grave-robbed occasionally. There are still a lot of wrong or overly-opinionated arguments out there ("he's so white" naw he's Asian) but like, I'm still proud of people doing a lot better this time.
4. I am not saying the human bone trade is good or bad or right or wrong. I am only saying that there are good ways to criticize the bone trade (with real facts!) and bad ways (being angry that people know about it.) You can also defend the trade using logic: where else would the human bones go? Incinerator? Locked in a closet? How is that better? Is there no value in being loved and helping people learn osteology, including medical professionals and the general public? The people who provided the skeletons didn't consent to getting destroyed or any of our cultural norms like burial either.
I should note that most, but not all, professional opinions I’ve seen on the matter are against the public human bones market. However, there is little benefit to publicly sharing your opinion if it goes against the majority, so I wonder what kind of publicity bias is there.
5. I often wonder if the human bone trade remains unregulated because of those who insist that everyone must assume they're illegal. Lawmakers don't want to waste their time looking into a trade that's """already illegal""" right?
Anyway, if you hate the human bone trade, please say a big "thank you" to people who are talking about it, so you can do something about it. Just remember that this is not new. There are many human bone traders out there. Part of the reason you’re seeing Jon is because his collection is quite significant! And another part is the fact that he’s open and transparent about having them. Some others are just more secretive.
Apparently the guy who works in Jonsbones who actually handles the bones has a BA in anthropology. They also happen to be the only member of the team who stays anonymous. I bet it's because they'd be fucking exiled from their discipline if any of their colleagues found out they were doing this shit. The company doesn't have anyone who's actually qualified to be handling bones because anyone qualified wouldn't do that shit.
It’s been said before that tiktok is literally going through the exact same life cycle as tumblr did, but I didn’t realize just how identical the two are until I hopped on the clock app and watched boneghazi 2.0 unfolding before my eyes
