The ethics of archaeology, subsistence digging, and artifact looting in Latin America

Point Muted Counterpoint

Bibliographic Data

ID4282641
AuthorsD Matsuda, David J Matsuda (State Street (United States), corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume7
Issue1
Pages87-97
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739198770080
OpenAlexW2126845056
LanguageEN
Citations received39

The author portrays the indigenous populations who engage in subsistence digging of sites in Latin America both as a means of supporting themselves economically and as a way of connecting themselves to their past and their ancestors who left the buried remains as a type of gift to their descendants. The article is also critical of the mainstream archaeologists, who, according to the author, hide behind the veil of scientific objectivity. Finally, the author juxtaposes the varying competing interests, particularly against the backdrop of denial of basic human and economic rights in these regions, and poses the question, to whom should these cultural remains belong

Archaeology · Artifact (error · Counterpoint · Denial · Digging · Epistemology · Indigenous · Looting · Mainstream · Objectivity (philosophy · Political science · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub