Cultural Heritage
Assignment: Anthropology 3 Who Owns the Past? Overview Over the past few decades, there has been an expansion of methods in bioarchaeology, the analysis of human skeletal remains. We are now able to extract ancient DNA to understand ancestry, measure stable isotopes to understand an individuals diet, use CAT-scan technology to record previously hidden traits, and so on. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that archaeology is not conducted in an ethical vacuum as descendant communities voices are increasingly being heard regarding the intrusion of archaeologists onto their ancestors. This conflict is especially apparent in a recent article, The Kennewick Man Finally Freed to Share His Secrets (Links to an external site.) , in the Smithsonian Magazine. You are to compose a brief, 750 word essay that compares and contrasts the Kennewick Man case with the African Burial Ground videos. This is not an opinion piece, but a position paper where you will use facts and examples to support your conclusion. African Burial Ground videos: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCa_djSo6E&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=MarionNewton Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYug9ZmQZV0&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=MarionNewton Kennewick Man case will be a pdf attachment. The questions below are provided to give you some considerations and directions for your paper–do not respond to each question but incorporate them into an essay with an introduction (including a thesis statement), body, and conclusion that takes a position regarding roles of archaeologists and descendant communities. 1.What role should archaeologists play in reconstructing the past of communities they are not members of? 2.Why would some communities want their ancestors’ remains studied by archaeologists, and other communities might not? 3.When should science, conducted in the interests of the general population, be more important than the ethical concerns of descendant communities? Paper requirements: 1. Your response should be a minimum of 750 words and submitted as a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF file in Canvas. 2. 12-point Times New Roman font. 3. Name, course, and date in the upper-left corner. 4. Original paper title (required) centered. 5. References cited at the end of the paper (do not need to place on a new page) 6. No quotations. Instead, cite your sources.
