Caring%20for%20America

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Chapter 17

• Caring for Americas Cultural Heritage

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Outline

• The Development of Cultural Resource Management
• Historic Preservation Comes of Age
• The National Historic Preservation Act
• The Archaeological Resources Protection Act

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Outline

• Challenges Facing CRM Archaeology
• International Efforts to Protect Cultural
  Resources
• The Native American Graves Protection and
  Repatriation Act of 1990

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Cultural Resource Management

• Threats to Americas cultural heritage come from
  those who loot archaeological sites and from
  relentless development across the country.
• The federal government has passed laws to protect
  archaeological sites, historic buildings, and
  landscapes.
• These laws have created an important new
  direction for archaeology, known as cultural
  resource management (CRM).

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Cultural Resource Management

• Prior to the 1960s, nearly all American
  archaeologists worked for universities and
  museums.
• Today, the number of archaeologists in the United
  States not only vastly exceeds those working in
  the 1960s, but well over half of them work in the
  framework of cultural resource management.
• CRM projects account for about 90 of the field
  archaeology conducted today in United States.

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1906 Antiquities Act

• Although individual sites were protected through
  specific pieces of legislation or by the actions
  of concerned citizens, the first legislation to
  protect all sites on public lands was the 1906
  Antiquities Act.

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1966 National HistoricPreservation Act (NHPA)

• The first systematic effort to preserve cultural
  resources.
• The act required the government to inventory
  historic structures and archaeological sites and
  ensure that development projects consider effects
  on archaeological sites.
• The act established the National Register of
  Historic Places and State Historic Preservation
  Offices.

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1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act

• This act provided further safeguards against the
  destruction of archaeological sites on federal
  and tribal land by increasing the penalties for
  excavating without a permit.
• Looting still continues to be the major threat to
  the nations cultural resources.

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Rosetta Stone

• A black basalt stone tablet found in 1799 that
  bears an inscription in two forms of ancient
  Greek and ancient Egyptian.
• By working from the Greek texts, scholars were
  able to decipher the ancient Egyptian
  hieroglyphs.
• Napoleon took the Rosetta Stone from Egypt as
  part of the spoils of war.

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Illegal Antiquities

• The United States and many nations around the
  world are working to stop the flow of illegally
  acquired antiquities.
• Although many measures have been put into place,
  most countries still find it difficult to stop
  antiquities from entering a country where buyers
  are willing to pay high prices for them.

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UNESCO Convention of 1970

• Requires that signers create legislation and the
  administration to
• Regulate import and export of cultural objects.
• Forbid museums from acquiring illegally exported
  cultural objects.
• Establish ways to inform other nations when
  illegally exported objects are found within a
  countrys borders.

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UNESCO Convention of 1970

1. Return of cultural objects stolen from public
   institutions.
2. Establish a register of art dealers and require
   them to register.

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1990 Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act

• Often seen as human rights rather than
  archaeological legislation.
• Protects Indian graves on federal and tribal
  lands.
• Recognizes tribal authority over treatment of
  unmarked graves.
• Prohibits the commercial selling of native dead
  bodies.

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1990 Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act

• Requires an inventory and repatriation of human
  remains held by the federal government and
  institutions that receive federal funding.
• Requires these institutions to return
  inappropriately acquired sacred objects and other
  important communally owned property to native
  owners.
• Set up a process to determine ownership of human
  remains found on federal and tribal property
  after November 16, 1990.

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NAGPRA Inventories

• Inventories showed that American institutions
  held more than 117,000 sets of human remains,
• Most were from Native American burials.

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NAGPRA Inventories

• The inventory covered skeletal remains as well as
  three special classes of objects
• Funerary objects placed with a human body as part
  of a death rite or ceremony or made to contain
  human remains at the time of burial.
• Sacred objects necessary for current practice of
  traditional Native American religions.
• Objects that have ongoing historical,
  traditional, or cultural importance central to
  Native American culture.

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Courses That Prepare You for a Career in
Archaeology

• Major in anthropology and take courses in
  biological, linguistic and cultural anthropology.
  
• Courses in geology, biology, chemistry
• Geomorphology
• Advanced chemistry
• Vertebrate anatomy
• Ecology, paleoecology

• Introductory business
• Math - at least through calculus II
• Statistics(multivariate statistics)
• Computer modeling and geographic information
  systems
• Technical or Creative writing
• Humanities courses
• Foreign language

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Quick Quiz
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• 1. The biggest threats to Americas cultural
  heritage come from those who loot archaeological
  sites and from relentless development across the
  country.
• True
• False

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Answer A. True

• The biggest threats to Americas cultural
  heritage come from those who loot archaeological
  sites and from relentless development across the
  country.

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• 2. _____ ______ _____ projects account for about
  90 of the field archaeology conducted today in
  United States.

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Answer Cultural Resource Management

• Cultural Resource Management projects account for
  about 90 of the field archaeology conducted
  today in United States.

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• 3. Which act requires an inventory and
  repatriation of human remains held by the federal
  government and institutions that receive federal
  funding
• 1966 National HistoricPreservation Act (NHPA)
• UNESCO Convention of 1970
• 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act
• 1990 Native American Graves Protection and
  Repatriation Act

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Answer D

• The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and
  Repatriation Act requires an inventory and
  repatriation of human remains held by the federal
  government and institutions that receive federal
  funding.