Digging for Identity: Native American Anthropological Practices and the Development of Race in American Anthropology

Abstract

Anthropology has a very short history as a true discipline, but its history is highly interwoven with the half-millenium of Euro-American colonization and domination of American aboriginal inhabitants. The permanence of race theory, as it pertains to biological or phenotypical differences, has persisted to today due to the continued introduction of biological methods into the social sciences. Not until the 1960s did American Indian activism in the civil rights movement call attention to the antagonism present between indigenous peoples and the anthropological community. It was not until the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed in 1990 that any country-wide action was taken on the Native American’s account.