Archaeological Politics

Today, we made our first foray into the archaeology of North and South America, which we'll be spending a lot of time in for the rest of the semester.  While the histories of residents of the Americas is fascinating, the study of the remains of those peoples brings up interesting conflicts between the archaeologists who have conducted research and the descendent communities (living Native Americans) that still have a stake in what happens to the remains of their ancestors.

The relationship between archaeologists and Native Americans has definitely not always been a friendly one. Throughout the rest of the semester, I'll do my best to bring these controversies to light, beginning on Friday with the infamous case of Kennewick Man.