Histories in bone: Navigating the ethical landscape of human skeletal collections in South Africa.

Provenance is at the center of addressing the complicated ethical stewardship of legacy human skeletal collections. Many South African (SA) health science institutions have skeletal collections. While the history of the collections and the demographics of the skeletons have been reported, the provenance of the individuals within the collections, a key factor in ethical practice, has yet to be fully explored. The aim of this study was to investigate the provenance and demographics of the individuals housed in the modern human skeletal collections of South African anatomy departments to ensure their ethical stewardship. The provenance and demographic data (sex, age at death, year of death, and population affinity) of individuals housed in five modern human skeletal collections in SA health sciences institutions were collected. Descriptive statistics were applied to the data to derive frequencies, percentages, and means (SD). The majority of skeletons (83%; n = 3734) in the collections surveyed have been sourced from unclaimed individuals. For those institutions where population affinity was provided, SA Black individuals comprised 71% (n = 2586) of the unclaimed group. Skeletons from bequests were low (15%; n = 683), of which 99% (n = 452) were SA White, older individuals. Male individuals comprised 71% (n = 3196) of the collections. The high number of skeletons from unclaimed bodies in these collections highlights the challenge of ethical stewardship facing curators and institutions housing these collections. The continued use of these collections requires sustained discourse, policy development, and legislative oversight to facilitate the ethical treatment of the individuals within the collections.