The cultural capitalists: notes on the ongoing reconfiguration of trafficking culture in Asia

Most analysis of the international flows of the illicit art market has described a global situation in which a postcolonial legacy of acquisition and collection exploits cultural heritage by pulling it westwards towards major international trade nodes in the USA and Europe. As the locus of consumptive global economic power shifts, however, these traditional flows are pulled in other directions: notably for the present commentary, towards and within Asia

The Dignity of the Dead: Ethical Reflections on the Archaeology of Human Remains

What is wrong with moving, analysing, and exhibiting an inert body of the past? Is it morally legitimate to manipulate the body or part of it that constituted the physiological essence of a subject with dignity? This chapter focuses, from a philosophical perspective, on analysing whether the notion of dignity can be applied to the human remains of a subject that no longer is. Ascribing dignity to dead bodies is problematic and needs conceptual clarifications in order to determine whether human corpses have certain moral status and should be protected or whether the notion of dignity should only be attributed to living persons. In this regard, as philosphers, we present a different notion of dignity from that used by Kant (1785) that it is commonly accepted when speaking about dignity, particularly since the Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations General Assembly 1948). In this chapter, the concepts “present dead” and “forgotten dead” are differentiated to justify that, even though the latter have not been object of special moral protection, they should be included under the concept of dignity. In addition, a notion of dignity grounded in the hermeneutical concept of understanding is presented to justify the role archaeology plays in providing a particular moral status to human remains and the material elements associated to them.Lydia de Tienda Palop—This paper falls within the Juan de la Cierva research programme IJCI-2014-19375 funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Competitividad of Spain.Brais X. Currás—This paper falls within the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia postdoctoral programme (SFRH/BPD/102407/2014) and of the research project HAR2015-64632-P, “Paisajes rurales antiguos del Noroeste peninsular: formas de dominación romana y explotación de recursos (CORUS)”, financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and directed from the Instituto de Historia (CCHS, CSIC)Peer reviewe

Illicit deals in cultural objects as crimes of the powerful

Research with dealers at the market end of the global chain of supply of cultural objects leads to the suggestion that the analytical framework associated with the concept of ‘crimes of the powerful’ can be useful in helping us to understand the role of dealers in driving the market, and in focussing our attention on the difficulties of engaging with the illicit trade through a conventional criminal justice approach. This paper explores the nature of the power that is associated with high-level antiquities dealers, and considers its regulatory implications