A debate that will never go away is the issue of how the New World was populated. The Beringa inland migration vs. costal migration vs. old world’ers coming over.

Or the whole Kennewick Man controversy... now coming to light once again with possibility of an amendment to NAGPRA

Agreed. Two very meaty topics.

CAS,

Heather's suggestion would be a good one to look to. The information is readily available online, and the topic is both anthropological and archaeological, and especially timely. If you need any help, this is the place to ask.

Cheers,

Richard

I'm not familiar with the Kennewick Man controversy, could someone please explain further? Thank you, I appreciate it.

In 1990 Congress passed The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which, in part, requires projects and institutions that are federally funded to return human remains and funerary objects back to federally recognized tribal organizations. Key to this law is that there has to be a definitive link between the tribe and the remains identified (they also need to be Native American, not just any old bones and stuff).

In 1996 skeletal remains were found lagging out of a reservoir near Kennewick, WA. The US Army Corp of Engineers (ACOE) was the federal agency responsible for maintenance of the reservoir. When they found out that bones were found they contacted the appropriate tribal government for consultation. Prior to that a forensic anthropologist was asked to verify the antiquity of the bones. According to him the cranium exhibited certain Caucasoid characteristics that were not known among Indian groups. Based on that evidence he recommended that the bones were not necessarily Native American, and suggested additional tests. By this time the ACOE and the tribe(s) had negotiated a solution to the discovery, which included the return of the bones, and the burial of the site of discovery.

So, that sets up the legal battle, which ended in a 9th Circuit Appellet ruling that allowed for further testing on the fact that the court could find no link between the tribe(s) and the remains, in part because the ACOE buried the evidence, and in part because the tribe(s) main arguments hinged on oral tradition, not hard evidence.

Now there is a move in Congress (most assuredly funded by tribal money) to rewrite portions of NAGPRA that would essentially hand the Kennewick remains back to the tribe(s).

Here's a link or two to look through:

http://acra-crm.org/_old/kennewick.pdf
http://www.kennewick-man.com/kman/legal/index.html
http://www.kennewick-man.com/kman/news/story/2883342p-2919351c.html

Good Morning, cas41 --

This project sounds familiar. I had to do a similar project for an archaeology course at Wayne State last year. There are a few debate topics in archaeology you could cover. We could pick from the following topics: Style (Sackett v. Weissner), Cannibalism (Turner v. Dongoske/Bullock), Neo-evolution (Steward v. White), Ethnographic Analogy (P.J. Watson v. Gould), Typology (Ford v. Spaulding) just to name a few.

Where abouts are you in Michigan?

And of course there is always the good old - placement of neandertal wihtin the human lineage - though that has more of a physical anthro twist than the other topics suggested here so far. You can find plenty of material on the issue.

Good Luck

Scalpcreek

You have actually mixed two very different topics. NAGPRA repatriation applies only to Grave associated materials and materials of cultural patrimony (important socio-cultural-relgious items). Not to everything ever found on a Native American site. And it only applies to Museums with collections that recived federal aide before 1990 (or since) and on Federal land. It does not apply to private collections, or to items from non-federally owned land.

the Second issue is one of repatriating things considered national treasures, which were taken from the country they were found in, without a due process - an opportunity for that country to say "No- we think that should stay here". Most of this happened as a result of Western Europes Colonial days, where the native peoples had little ability to stand up for their rights.

Laws today are very clear on what can be exported and how, but for centuries well to do white folks, governments and institutions were bascially pot hunters of the worlds history.