The repatriation of the Palaeoamericans

Kennewick Man/the Ancient One and the end of a non-Indian ancient North America

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5777724
AutoresAnn M Kakaliouras (0000-0002-3115-8156, autor correspondente)
Ano2019
Volume4
Páginas79-98
Data de publicação2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBJHS Themes (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2056-354X • E-ISSN: 2058-850X
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/bjt.2019.9
OpenAlexW2967749702
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas32

This article considers the repatriation of some the most ancient human skeletal remains from the United States as two sorts of ending: their end as objects of scientific study, and their end as ancient non-American Indian settlers of North America. In the 1990s, some prominent physical anthropologists and archaeologists began replacing 'Palaeoindian' with the new category of 'Palaeoamerican' to characterize the western hemisphere's earliest inhabitants. Kennewick Man/the Ancient One, a nearly nine-thousand-year-old skeleton, convinced some anthropologists that contemporary Native American people (descendants of Palaeo indians ) were not biologically related to the very first American colonists. The concept of the Palaeoamerican therefore denied Native American people their long-held status as the original inhabitants of the Americas. New genetic results, however, have contradicted the craniometric interpretations that led to these perceptions, placing the most ancient American skeletons firmly back in the American Indian family tree. This article describes the story of Kennewick Man/the Ancient One, the most famous 'Palaeoamerican'; explores how repatriation has been a common end for many North American collections (Palaeoindians included); and enumerates what kind of ending repatriation may represent materially and ethically for anthropological science

Indian country · Native american · Repatriation · Forensic and Genetic Research · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Race, Genetics, and Society