Academic freedom, stewardship and cultural heritage: weighing the interests of stakeholders in crafting repatriation approaches

Abstract

The United States has now experienced a decade of life under the new conditions inaugurated by the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. NAGPRA legislation forced a long-overdue engagement of archaeologists and museums with native peoples, an engagement that continues to unfold, both as a source of enrichment in perspectives, and as the origin of dilemmas that go to the heart of understandings of concepts which many consider basic to democratic societies.