The politics of the Ice Maiden’s return — the negotiation between the scientific institutions that had custody of her remains and the Altai community that claimed her as an ancestor — is a microcosm of a much larger global conversation about the treatment of ancient human remains.

This conversation has been developing across multiple decades in multiple contexts.

In Australia, the return of Aboriginal human remains from European and Australian museums has been a political and moral question since the 1980s.

In North America, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) established a legal framework for the repatriation of Native American human remains from institutions that receive federal funding.

In various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, similar debates have occurred with varying results.