California State University NAGPRA and Bioarchaeology Discussion Questions For this week, you read about archaeological research across the world. Archaeol

California State University NAGPRA and Bioarchaeology Discussion Questions For this week, you read about archaeological research across the world. Archaeologists have been excavating sites around the globe for decades, but their methods have not always been accurate or culturally sensitive. After reviewing the NAGPRA and bioarchaeology PowerPoints, were you surprised by any of the information you learned? Did you have a working knowledge of NAGPRA laws? Do some Google research to determine if there are any Native sites near your hometown. Are they protected? Why or why not?2) Many other countries do not have NAGPRA-equivalent laws. Focus on one archaeological example (e.g. site, burial, building, etc.) that you know of outside of the United States (you can Google!). Is this site protected by the local or national government? Why or why not? NAPRGRA article: https://centerofthewest.org/2015/12/01/breaking-se… Bioarchaeology
Definition
• The study of the human skeleton from
archaeological contexts
• The physical and chemical examination of bones
have the capacity to reveal a wide range of
information about past peoples and societies
including health, sex, age, trauma, etc.
First considerations of ANY project
• Legal issues
• Ethical
issues
Universit
y
approval?
(IRB)
Proper
curation
and
maintenanc
e protocols?
Who
“owns”
remains
?
Are there
tribal
sanctions
against
research?
Can
destructiv
e analyses
be
performed
?
Governmen
t or
political
issues to
be
resolved?
• How were individuals buried?
• Where are the burials in
relationship to the rest of the
site?
• What is the site?
• Were remains moved after death?
• How many mortuary episodes?
• What is known about the culture?
• What is known about burial
practices through time?
CONTEXT is
everything!
Sac Uitzil Ba, Belize
How do remains
become:
Commingled?
Disarticulated?
Altered?
Moved?
Humans (past
and present),
animals, natural
processes
Analyzing multiple lines of evidence
• Look at the
skeletal remains
PLUS:
The bioarchaeologist
monitors the dynamics
between changes in the
ecological and cultural
environment and changes
in human adaptation and
response
• Archaeological
context
• Grave goods
• Positioning
• Environment
• Variability between
and among
populations
Maya
maize
god
Teeth showing evidence of
calculus
Measuring
stress
• Bioarchaeologists
have done this for
a long time
• But, do we know
enough about the
biology?
NAGPRA:
Native American
Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act
United States federal law as of 1990
Federal agencies and institutions
must return Native American cultural
items to descendants and affiliated
tribes
Ethics in archaeology

Is it ethical to study human remains? Display them? Destroy
them via scientific methods like isotope analysis? Photograph
them?

Who gets the right to determine what we do with skeletal
remains of past populations?
Maria Pearson

In the 1970s, she found out that Native
American skeletal remains and white remains
were treated differently after discovery

“You can give me back my people’s bones and
you can quit digging them up!” – Maria
Pearson

Passage of the Iowa Burial Protection Act of
1976 (first in the US to protect native remains)

Pearson and many activists and archaeologists
created NAGPRA (including MSU professors!)
Why do we need NAGPRA?

States used to protect only
marked graves (many Native
graves are unmarked)

Native groups wanted equal
protection under the law

Since burial of the dead is
strongly tied to religion, this is a
first amendment protection issue

Sovereignty rights – Native
Americans control their own laws
and customs (cannot be dictated
by federal government)
Protestors at Bolsa Chica land trust
How is NAGPRA put into practice?
 Cultural
items are
returned to tribes
after cultural
affiliation is
demonstrated
 If lineal
descendants cannot
be identified, then
objects are returned
to the tribe on
whose lands the
remains were found
Amateur archaeologist Ralph Gliddens’ museum – all
stolen human remains
How is NAGPRA put into practice?

Congress: “…strike a balance between the interest in scientific
examination of skeletal remains and the recognition that Native
Americans, like people from every culture around the world,
have a religious and spiritual reverence for the remains of their
ancestors.”

Museums and institutions must prepare an inventory of remains
and objects

Approximately 32,000 individuals returned, 670,000 funerary
objects, 3,500 sacred objects

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