Skeleton Keys

2019-04-25 Skeleton Keys & Popular Science Podcast

Our work was referenced and discussed in a new popular science book by author Brian Switek, ‘Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone’. The book is discussed at https://www.popsci.com/skeleton-keys-excerpt/ . You can also listen to the ‘Weirdest Thing’ podcast talk about our work at https://www.popsci.com/weirdest-thing-falcon-sex-instagram-bones-sleep-twitch/

Archaeologists such as Damien Huffer track how human remains are marketed and sold over people’s smartphones, and, with colleague Shawn Graham, he dug into the mechanics of the trade in a 2017 paper called “The Insta‑Dead: The Rhetoric of the Human Remains Trade on Instagram.” As it turned out, the language used to promote and purchase skeletons is very familiar. The general vibe is that of nineteenth‑century archaeology and anthropology, putting the acquisition of specimens above the recognition of those pieces as people.