UC Berkeley is "repatriating" over 50,000 "sacred items" to indigenous groups.

Imagine if everything in museums that had come from a church or temple, from an idol or a statue of a god, all ancient scriptures and myths of whatever religion, or anything that was associated with them, were "returned" to someone! There would be almost nothing left about the ancient world. It would be a calamity for anthropology.

At least there is not much danger that this will be extended to artifacts from Europe, or most of Asia. So far, people of European and Asian ancestry are not trying to extend this policy of excluding our own ancestors and past from anthropology. But there may be little trace in 2050 of cultures from the Americans, Australia and Africa to compare them with.

For what it's worth, I see nothing wrong with digging up the graves or artifacts of people related to me for the sake of scientific study. And that includes my own "remains" — but I've arranged for scientists to get first crack at those, after my death.