Bibliographic Information
Article Title
Walking the Ancestors Home: On the Road to an Ethical Human Biology.
Journal Title
Anthropology Now
Author(s)
Blakey, Michael. L.
Month of Publication
January
Year of Publication
2022
Volume Number
14
Issue Number
1–2
Article Pages
1–20
Web Address (URL)
Notes
"I first worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in 1968. It was a project I designed on the dental pathology and masticatory musculature of 50 Hawiku and Suruque skulls, under the kind supervision of biological anthropologist Donald Ortner. I was 15 years old and attending Larry Angel’s and Lucille St. Hoyme’s summer paleopathology seminar at the museum. One could still smell smoke and mold wafting from riot-torn 7th Street after Martin Luther King’s murder only a couple of months before. I was the only African American and the youngest person in the seminar, a situation to which I had already become accustomed as a member of the Maryland Archaeological Society.
A dozen years later I returned on a graduate fellowship to study the Hrdlička papers, only the second person to do so, and to write a critical social history of biological anthropology from the vantage of the Smithsonian. I thought it wise to examine the history of this thing I planned to become part of if I was to chart my own course through it."
Taxonomies
RPA Codes & Standards
- Appropriate Dissemination of Research
- Archaeologist's Responsibility to Colleagues, Employees, and Students
- Archaeologist's Responsibility to Employers and Clients
- Archaeologist's Responsibility to the Public
- Integrity of Research Methodology
- Specimen and Research Record Storage
CIfA Codes
- Principle 1: Adherence to ethical and responsible behaviour in archaeological affairs
- Principle 3: Responsibility for acquiring and recording reliable information of the past in archaeological research
- Principle 4: Responsibility for the availability of archaeological results within reasonable dispatch
Keywords & Terms
- Adequate and Responsible Reporting, Publication, and Dissemination
- Avoid, Discourage, and Report Unethical and Illegal Activity
- Burials and Human Remains
- Conservation
- Consultation/Partnership with Affected Groups
- Culturally Significant and/or Sacred Sites, Objects, and Places
- Employer/Client Relationships
- Equity and Representation; Discrimination and Harassment
- General Archaeological Ethics
- Impact on Communities - Local, Descendant, etc.
- Museum, Collection, Curation and Display Standards
- Professional Standards
- Public Interest, Collaboration, Education, and Outreach
- Repatriation
- Respect for and Responsibility to Affected Groups
- Standards of Data Collection, Recordation, Analysis
- Standards of Training and Student/Teacher Responsibilities
- Stewardship
- Storage of Data, Specimens, and Records
- Transparency
Topics & Issues
- AAGPRA
- Archaeological Ethics - Other
- Biological Anthropology/Archaeology
- Conservation and Ethics
- Descendant, Resident, and Stakeholder Communities
- Equity, Representation, and Diversity
- Ethical Case Studies
- Ethical Dilemmas
- Ethical Responsibilities of Archaeologists
- Ethics of Collecting
- Human Remains and Ethical Practice
- Museum and Display Ethics
- NAGPRA, Repatriation, and Indigenous Rights
- Race in Archaeology
- Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, and Other Forms of Discrimination