History of American Indians and the United States

Research Ethics and the Politics of Pre-Contact

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu Humanities 109 | MWF 9:20 - 10:15 AM

Office Hrs: M 10:20 - 11:20 & F 1:30 - 3:30

Social Science 60S

Wednesday, November 8

coming up

today's class

  • early Iroquois history
  • research ethics
  • NAGPRA

pot rims & pipe bowls

pot
pot

archaeological complexes

point peninsula
point peninsula

pot rims & pipe bowls

  • Point Peninsula: 600 BCE - 250 CE
  • Owasco: 250 CE - 1300 CE
  • women as captives or women as traders?
  • village and forest problem
  • death cult pipe symbolism?
  • perceptions of savagery

early Iroquois history

  • what's the role of oral history?
  • Great League of Peace - 820? 1125? 1435? 1611?
  • Owasco: in situ vs migration hypothesis
  • politics of land claims and cultural affiliation

ethics of research

  • how does the research reflect the concerns of the time in which it's produced?
  • does the research harm or benefit the community with which you're working?
  • who gets to control the direction of research?
  • Native American Graves and Repatriation Act 1990

RMSC, Cornell University & Six Nations

  • RMSC: no federal funding
  • "poor" excavation records
  • private lands privately excavated up to 1990
  • "closed" to Iroquois researchers
  • role of Six Nations Research Council

who owns the past?

who owns the past

NAGPRA 1990

  • human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects
  • only federal lands or institutions with federal funding
  • only federally recognized tribes
  • must show cultural affiliation - who determines this?
  • crime to traffic in goods or desecrate graves