Why fight over fossils?
The trafficking of antiquities, rare wildlife and fossils is a lucrative black market business. It is also a serious transnational crime that challenges our physical, social and economic security. According to Donna Yates(opens in new window), an associate professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at Maastricht University(opens in new window), existing policy has proven to be ineffective at reducing the flow of many illicit commodities. But what if the reason our attempts to disrupt this criminal activity fail is because they ignore a crucial element within trafficking networks: the trafficked objects themselves? Working to answer this question is the EU-funded TRANSFORM(opens in new window) project. Drawing heavily on research from object-focused fields such as archaeology and heritage and museum studies, the European Research Council(opens in new window) supported project conducted extensive ethnographic research on object networks. By understanding the complex relationship between people and objects, Yates, who coordinated the project, hoped to better understand this type of crime.
There’s something about antiquities, collectable wildlife and fossils
The project focused on three types of collectable objects that tend to inspire passion, profound responses and, at times, crime: antiquities, collectable wildlife and fossils. The project covered succulent theft, the market for megalodon teeth, and a previously undetected multi-decade crime scheme that involved tricking museums to gain their legitimacy. It also looked at the questionable digital use of scanned ancient manuscripts from Afghanistan and at a group of Russians who used metal detectors to illicitly search for World War II objects. This work fed into the publishing of several high-profile articles. For example, in an article published by the ‘International Journal of Cultural Property’(opens in new window), Yates, together with co-author Emily Peacock from the University of York, looked at why some dinosaur fossils tend to illicit more passionate responses than others. Specifically, the article explores how T. rex fossils cause trouble wherever they end up – they break up families, cause disputes and disagreements, and make everyone involved sue each other.
Caution: the object ahead may be more powerful than it appears
This intense desire that a fossil can illicit is similar to what is seen with certain pieces of jewellery, art and artefacts, and falls into what the authors of the ‘International Journal of Cultural Property’ article refer to as ‘desirescape’. According to that article, desirescapes see a network of object/object and object/human reactions provoking an irresistible desire in humans – a desire that can push some to violate the law and social norms or take other drastic measures. Knowing this, how should humans approach T. rex fossils and other disruptive objects? “Cautiously, and with the knowledge that these objects may be more powerful than we are,” say the article’s authors.
The complicated relationship between people and certain objects
The TRANSFORM project has advanced our understanding of the complicated relationship people have with certain powerful objects and what that relationship leads people to do. Through this project, researchers hope to help develop a new and more accurate model of the networks that form around and with the objects of crime and how those relationships could be better addressed in anti-crime policy. Building on the TRANSFORM project’s research, Yates is now focusing her attention on how the trafficking of objects emerges and the ‘grey criminology’ that treads the line between what’s legal and what’s not.
