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Saturday, June 18, 2011

study native americans online

       Archaeology is the science and humanity that studies historical human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes. Archaeology aims to understand humankind through these humanistic endeavors. In the United States the field is commonly considered to be a subset of anthropology, along with physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology, whilst in British and European universities, archaeology is considered as a separate discipline.
      Archaeology involves surveyance, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected in order to learn more about the past. There are various different goals to the discipline, including the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of human cultures, understanding culture history, chronicling cultural evolution, and studying human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies. Indeed, archaeology is particularly useful in discovering information about human Prehistory, which comprises over 99% of total human history, due to the lack of written sources for this period and the full reliance on archaeological evidence. However, alongside this it is also used to investigate more recent history, even that reaching back only a few decades.

 Left, Artist Lucy Telles and large basket, in Yosemite National Park, 1933 Center, Haida totem pole, Thunderbird Park, British Columbia. Right, Mata Ortiz pottery jar by Jorge Quintana, 2002. Displayed at Museum of Man, San Diego, California.

      In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography, geology, linguistics, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.
      Looting of archaeological sites is an ancient problem. For instance, many of the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs were looted during antiquity. Archaeology stimulates interest in ancient objects, and people in search of artifacts or treasure cause damage to archaeological sites. The commercial and academic demand for artifacts unfortunately contributes directly to the illicit antiquities trade. Smuggling of antiquities abroad to private collectors has caused great cultural and economic damage in many countries whose governments lack the resources and or the will to deter it. Looters damage and destroy archaeological sites, denying future generations information about their ethnic and cultural heritage. Indigenous peoples especially lose access to and control over their 'cultural resources', ultimately denying them the opportunity to know their past.
      Popular consciousness often associates looting with poor Third World countries, but this is a false assumption. A lack of financial resources and political will are chronic worldwide problems inhibiting more effective protection of archaeological sites. Many Native American Indians today, such as Vine Deloria, Jr., consider any removal of cultural artifacts from a Native American Indian site to be theft, and much of professional archaeology as academic looting.

 Left, Storyteller Under Sunny Skies, storyteller doll by Rose Pecos-SunRhodes (Jemez), 1993, collection of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Center, Una Vida Pueblo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. by photographer James Q. Jacobs. Right, "Carpet" of land in the Town Hall Square in La Orotava Tenerife in celebration of Corpus Christi.

      In 1937 W. F. Hodge the Director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles CA, released a statement that the museum would no longer purchase or accept collections from looted contexts. The first conviction of the transport of artifacts illegally removed from private property under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA; Public Law 96-95; 93 Statute 721; 16 U.S.C. 470aamm) was in 1992 in the State of Indiana.
      In the United States, examples such as the case of Kennewick Man have illustrated the tensions between Native Americans and archaeologists which can be summarized as a conflict between a need to remain respectful towards burials sacred sites and the academic benefit from studying them. For years, American archaeologists dug on Indian burial grounds and other places considered sacred, removing artifacts and human remains to storage facilities for further study. In some cases human remains were not even thoroughly studied but instead archived rather than reburied. Furthermore, Western archaeologists' views of the past often differ from those of tribal peoples. The West views time as linear; for many natives, it is cyclic. From a Western perspective, the past is long-gone; from a native perspective, disturbing the past can have dire consequences in the present.
Susquehannock artifacts on display at the 
State Museum of Pennsylvania, 2007
      As a consequence of this, American Indians attempted to prevent archaeological excavation of sites inhabited by their ancestors, while American archaeologists believed that the advancement of scientific knowledge was a valid reason to continue their studies. This contradictory situation was addressed by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990), which sought to reach a compromise by limiting the right of research institutions to possess human remains. Due in part to the spirit of postprocessualism, some archaeologists have begun to actively enlist the assistance of indigenous peoples likely to be descended from those under study.
      Archaeologists have also been obliged to re-examine what constitutes an archaeological site in view of what native peoples believe to constitute sacred space. To many native peoples, natural features such as lakes, mountains or even individual trees have cultural significance. Australian archaeologists especially have explored this issue and attempted to survey these sites in order to give them some protection from being developed. Such work requires close links and trust between archaeologists and the people they are trying to help and at the same time study.
      While this cooperation presents a new set of challenges and hurdles to fieldwork, it has benefits for all parties involved. Tribal elders cooperating with archaeologists can prevent the excavation of areas of sites that they consider sacred, while the archaeologists gain the elders' aid in interpreting their finds. There have also been active efforts to recruit aboriginal peoples directly into the archaeological profession. (Wikipedia.org)

Archaeology Links:
Museums that house significant Native American Collections for teachers and students to study from. These museums also host numerous Native American exhibitions:
More of The Best Native American clipart, photographs, illustrations, and engravings. Our staff updates all of the links listed below.
  1. First People's giant collection of indian clipart.
  2. Native American Clipart from old books.
  3. Indian graphics from Greasy Grass
  4. Native American Clipart from the Public Domain
  5. Heartland Ranch Indian Graphics
  6. Heartland Prairie Indian Graphics
  7. School Clip Art of Native Americans
  8. Blue Cloud Abby Native American Photograph Collection.
  9. Pictures of Native Americans in the United States
  10. Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
  11. American Indians / Native Americans from the Chicago Daily News
  12. National Anthropological Archives
  13. Indians of North America-Theodore De Bry Copper Plate Engravings
  14. Index of White Watercolors and De Bry Engravings
  15. Picturing the New World, The hand-colored De Bry Engravings of 1590
  16. Public Domain Images of Native Americans
  17. Native portraits from the Public Domain Photo Blog
  18. National Anthropological Archives
  19. Native American Photochroms
  20. After Columbus: Four-hundred Years of Native American Portraiture
  21. American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island
  22. American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection
  23. Benedicte Wrensted: An Idaho Photographer in Focus
  24. Dawn of a New Day, photograph collections at the Arizona State University Library
  25. Early Photographers Of First Peoples In British Columbia
  26. Edward Harvey Davis Photo Gallery - San Diego Historical Society
  27. Gallery of the Open Frontier, University of Nebraska Press and the National Archives
  28. Images of the Indian Peoples of the Northern Great Plains
  29. Indians near Warner Springs - San Diego Historical Society
  30. Mi'kmaq Portraits
  31. Native American Photographs : Nineteenth Century Images, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
  32. Panoramic photographs from the National Archives, including one of a large group on Indians.
  33. Photographs from the Union Pacific Railroad Archives
  34. Picture Collection Online from the New York Public Library
  35. Pictures of Indians in the United States , in the National Archives
  36. Prints and Photographs Reading Room , Library of Congress
  37. llustrations and Photographs, 1891-93 by Thomas W. Kavanagh
  38. Wanamaker Collection of American Indian photographs
  39. Reading Historic Photographs: Photographers of the Pawnee by Thomas W. Kavanagh
  40. Richard Throssel: Photographer of the Crows
  41. Special Collections and Archives Department, Cline Library , Northern Arizona University
  42. Stereotyping Native America
  43. The Outsider and the Native Eye: The Photographs of Richard Throssel
  44. Visual Records Collections, British Columbia Archives
  45. Wisconsin Historical Images
  46. Alaska Clipart Collection
  47. ETC's Native American Clip Art
  48. Native American Clipart from U.S. History Images
  49. Native American Symbols
  50. Native American Indian Graphics from classroomclipart.com
  51. Native American Tribal Designs from Adcre8tr.com
  52. Tribal Clip Art from Native American Art Prints

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