eBook

Plundered skulls and stolen spirits : inside the fight to reclaim native America's culture

Colwell, Chip

2017,2022

Overview

A leading anthropologist \"explores the fraught project of repatriating Native American sacred objects in this moving and thoughtful work\" ( Publishers Weekly). Who own the objects that connect us to history? And who has the right to decide, particularly when the objects are sacred or, in the case of skeletal remains, human? As senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Chip Colwell has navigated questions like these firsthand. In Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits, he examines how to weigh the religious freedom of Native Americans against the academic freedom of scientists—and whether the emptying of museum shelves elevates human rights or destroys a common heritage. Today, hundreds of tribes use the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to recover their looted heritage from museums across the country. Colwell shares a personal account of this process, following the trail of four objects as they were created, collected, and ultimately returned to their sources: a sculpture that is a living god, the scalp of a massacre victim, a ceremonial blanket, and a skeleton from a tribe considered by some to be extinct. These stories reveal a dramatic process that involves not merely obeying the law, but negotiating the blurry lines between identity and morality, spirituality and politics. Repatriation, Colwell argues, is a difficult but vitally important way for museums and tribes to heal the wounds of the past while creating a respectful approach to caring for these rich artifacts of history.

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press,The University of Chicago Press
• Subject: Anthropological ethics / Anthropological ethics -- United States / Anthropological museums and collections / Anthropological museums and collections - United States / anthropology / antiquities / Archaeology / Archaeology -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States / ART / Museum Studies / ART / Native American / ceremonial blanket / collections / community / Cultural property / Cultural property -- Repatriation -- United States / denver museum of nature science / ethics / exhibits / extinct / god / graves protection and repatriation act / heritage / HISTORY / HISTORY / General / HISTORY / United States / General / Human remains (Archaeology) / Human remains (Archaeology) -- Repatriation -- United States / human rights / identity / Indians of North America / Indians of North America -- Material culture -- United States / Indians of North America -- United States -- Antiquities / indigenous / johnson v chilkat indian village / legal system / legislation / massacre / material culture / morality / Museums and Indians / Museums and Indians -- United States / native american / nonfiction / ownership / politics / religious freedom / sacred remains / sand creek / scalp / sculpture / skeleton / skulls / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Physical / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Native American Studies / spirituality / tribe / United States. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act / war
• ISBN: 022629899X, 9780226684444, 022668444X, 9780226298993, 9780226299044, 022629904X