Anthropological measuring instruments and photographic plates of human teeth
Item
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Title
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Anthropological measuring instruments and photographic plates of human teeth
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Description
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Anthropological measuring instruments were used to measure the human skull and various body parts. The set of items includes a craniometer, a tool used for measuring the skull, as well as equipment used in other measurements. The set also contains forms where the details of the individual being studied were recorded. Skull measurement, or craniometry, was one of the methods of physical anthropology. Researchers classified human groups based on these physical characteristics, such as the proportions of their skulls. Physical anthropology was associated with the study of races, which was prevalent in science, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The research aimed, among other things, to demonstrate that some races were superior or purer than others. The photographic plates originate from the Department of Anatomy at the University of Helsinki. They may be related to Yrjö Kajava's anthropological research on the Sámi people´s teeth conducted in 1912. Kajava was a professor of anatomy at the University of Helsinki from 1921 to 1929. The teeth may have been photographed from Sámi skulls. The skulls belonged to a collection preserved in the Department of Anatomy, which included human skulls and bones. Human skulls were acquired for the collection through unethical means, such as exhuming graves in Sámi cemeteries. In 1995, the university returned some of the Sámi bones to Inari for burial, and the rest in 2001 to be kept at the Sámi Museum Siida. These remains have also been buried in 2022. Before World War II, the Sámi people were studied in the Nordic countries using methods of physical anthropology. The aim was to investigate, among other things, the mixing of races. The Sámi are the only recognized indigenous people in the European Union. Despite the security of the Nordic welfare state, they have been in a subordinate and socioeconomically disadvantaged position compared to other populations.
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Place
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University of Helsinki, The Helsinki University Museum Flame
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Rights Holder
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University of Helsinki
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Temporal Coverage
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1880s-1910s
