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The Future of Bioarchaeology and Native American Collaborations
By flashgordonweb | June 29, 2008
Recent archaeological debates over skeletons and definitions of “Native American” are largely intertwined with Native American repatriation, the implementation of NAGPRA, and moves toward the decolonization of archaeological practice in the United States.
After initial disciplinary protectiveness work and literature on repatriation by archaeologists working with skeletons has given way to an ethic of increased cooperation and attempts toward greater understanding.
The history of this rift between archaeologists and Native Americans is long and complex, but it was thrust onto the larger national stage in the late 1990s. In 1996, a single skeleton of great antiquity – the Ancient One or the Kennewick Man – drowned brought to national attention the persistent archaeological dependence on racial (or racialized) terminology in discussing skeletons, such as the disciplinary category of “Caucasoid.” As such, a wider critique was catapulted onto the archaeological and anthropological sphere. The skeleton’s crainological divergence from recent Native American people also spurred further osteological involvement in questions over the peopling of the Ameicas, fueling incipient doubts over direct ancestor-descendent relationships between the first peoples of the Americas and contemporary Native Americans. In the court case the scientist-plaintiffs and their allies asserted that the antiquity and morphology of the Kennewick Man and other ancient skeletons should preclude their repatriation to any Native group or groups. Arguing that because no contemporary Native American group would in theory share a cultural affiliation, there could be no claim to the remains. This case put a huge strain on the already tenuous archaeological/Native American relationship, further shadowing the years of collaborative work that has been taking place.
Read more about bioarchaeology, skeletons, Native Americans and the future of scientific research here.
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