Archaeologists and anthropologists around the world are learning to work governed by what might be called the three new R's - research, respect and reburial.
Larry Zimmerman, professor of anthropology at the University of South Dakota-Vermillion, told an audience at Utah State University this week that demands to rebury human remains used in research are justified and will continue.Zimmerman has been involved in the excavation and reburial of the remains of a number of indigenous people, including those of nearly 500 people found in a mass grave at the Crow Creek archaeological site in South Dakota.
Now well-acquainted with the sensitivity of using human remains for research and educational purposes, Zimmerman said he is careful to get clearance to use photographs of skeletal or mummified remains because many people consider it a desecration even to photograph them.
Many Native American people and others say archaeological research is not necessary to help them understand what the past means to them, Zimmerman said.
What scientists learn from studying human remains includes demographic information about populations, knowledge about disease, nutrition and lifestyles, as well as information about social structure and culture.
One reason many scientists argue that human skeletal or mummified remains should be kept in museums and labs is that new techniques arise, allowing new information to be gathered from the same remains, Zimmerman said.
New information can be gathered now using DNA samples. Analysis of bones for trace elements can provide information about population movement, climate and environment, and scientists can reconstruct physical features based on skeletal structure and other information. And often, he said, information from the past helps us solve current problems.
Zimmerman said at the outset of the project the Sioux people were very suspicious and leery of the work being done at the massacre site, so scientists did what they could to alleviate some of the concerns.
Sioux laborers were hired to work at the site. But a number of people on the reservation became ill, and many blamed the maladies on spirits that had been disturbed while guarding the ancient Arikara people buried at the site, especially since the Sioux and Arikara had long been enemies.
Zimmerman called for a medicine man to come to the site. The man built a sweat lodge, spent the night there with several skulls and concluded the spirits were at rest so work could continue.