- Title
- Perspectives on the Ancient One
- Creator
- Burke, Heather; Smith, Claire
- Relation
- Kennewick Man: Perspectives on the Ancient One p. 20-25
- Relation
- Archaeology and Indigenous Peoples Series
- Relation
- http://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=153
- Publisher
- Left Coast Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- When Judge Gould of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals described Kennewick Man as "one of the most important American anthropological and archaeological discoveries of the 20th century", he was right in more ways than one. The original serendipitous discovery of a skull in the soft sediments of the Columbia River in Washington State in 1996 precipitated a long drawn-out legal battle between eight scientists and a coalition of five tribal groups and became the vehicle for a host of questions critical to the politics of cultural identity, the construction of Indigenous and scientific values, and the role of archaeology in the modern world. The implications of the Kennewick case have polarized individuals, divided communities, generated a cloud of controversy and media hype, and been spun off into a range of extremist positions, ranging from born-again Vikings to white power racism. In this process, Kennewick Man became the symbol of a battle between "science and religion" and between Native American people and archaeologists over who has the right to control of the past. The ramifications of this controversy have resounded well beyond the United States. In short, this edited volume is not a typical collection of academic articles, although many contributions have been written by scholars who are leaders in their fields. Instead, our aim has been to include a diversity of opinions and standpoints on the ever-widening issues surrounding the Ancient One and, in doing so, to reveal some of the fault-lines that fracture modern archaeology.
- Subject
- Kennewick Man; Indigenous peoples; archaeology; cultural identity; anthropology; Ancient One; Native Americans
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804600
- Identifier
- uon:6668
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781598743470
- Language
- eng
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