Starting with a song denouncing anthropologists and prehistorians as disrespectful of the cultures they study, the article reflects on the relationship between lost cultures and their scientific study, drawing on the author’s personal experience. It then examines NAGPRA, the federal “Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act”, which in 1990 gave Native American communities extensive rights over various cultural properties and archaeological sites. He highlights the paradoxical, if not perverse, effects of such legislation, which has not necessarily contributed to a better knowledge (and recognition) of pre-colonial societies in North America.
Volume: 7 | 2023 - Identity versus science? Science at the service of identity?
Section: Articles
Published on: May 10, 2023
Accepted on: May 10, 2023
Submitted on: May 10, 2023
Keywords: North America,NAGPRA,culture,archaeology,universalism,Sinagua,Amérique du Nord,NAGPRA,culture,archéologie,universalisme,Sinagua,[SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology,[SHS.HISPHILSO]Humanities and Social Sciences/History, Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences