"As an anthropologist, yes, I have many opinions about this book.

Jenkins almost villainizes native communities for daring to request the return of their cultural artifacts or human remains.

Most of Jenkins arguments end up countering themselves later in the book. Artifacts should stay in museums because their meaning changes over time and out of their original context anyway — but you also can’t remove artifacts from the museums because then their meaning will change!

Jenkins never states once why museums, in her opinion, should hold final authority over the narratives of artifacts — only that it’s not right for source communities to have that final say. She just comes off as ignorant, selfish, and very ethnocentric.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still using this book for my thesis, but I completely disagree with her arguments. "