Bones, Documents and DNA: Cultural Property at the Margins of the Law

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Douglas, Lee. 2017. Bones, Documents and DNA: Cultural Property at the Margins of the Law. In: Jane Anderson and Haidy Geismar, eds. The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 418-430. ISBN 9780367783983 [Book Section]

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This essay and the accompanying photographs consider how objects and forms of knowledge that exist at the margins of the law are mobilized to make claims and produce forms of cultural value in contemporary Spain. By examining mass grave exhumation projects where tangible and intangible objects—like human remains, documents, testimonies, and DNA—are recovered and deployed to produce alternative forms of historical knowledge, I consider how cultural property frameworks can be useful for unpacking how claims are asserted through unruly bodies of evidence that do not fit neatly within the boundaries of legal procedure.

The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property contains new contributions from scholars working at the cutting edge of cultural property studies, bringing together diverse academic and professional perspectives to develop a coherent overview of this field of enquiry. The global range of authors use international case studies to encourage a comparative understanding of how cultural property has emerged in different parts of the world and continues to frame vital issues of national sovereignty, the free market, international law, and cultural heritage. By bringing together disciplinary perspectives from anthropology, archaeology, law, Indigenous studies, history, folklore studies, and policy, this volume facilitates fresh debate and broadens our understanding of this issue of growing importance. This comprehensive and coherent statement of cultural property issues will be of great interest to cultural sector professionals and policy makers, as well as students and academic researchers engaged with cultural property in a variety of disciplines.

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Book Section

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641034-26