Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The concepts of “collecting” and “collections” are integral both to museums and to archaeological practice, and North American museums and repositories curate an immense quantity and variety of archaeological material. The curation of collections and the use of collections in research, both envisioned as preservation of the archaeological record, are enshrined in the SAA’s “Principles of Archaeological Ethics.” At the same time and in tension with this ethical ideal, archaeology has a widely acknowledged “curation crisis” that encompasses shortages of space, funding, and labor. Moreover, museums and the wider discipline of archaeology struggle to develop practices that address the colonial legacies that are embodied in archaeological collections. This session will seek explore the ideas and ideals—tacit or explicit—that underlie archaeological collections in North American museums and repositories, how the reality of collections and curation practice articulates with those ideas, and how understanding these ideas can help shape our approaches to the materials in our care and the collections we accept in the future.

Other Keywords
Conservation and Curation • Collections • Museums • and Repatriation • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Education • Museum • Ethics • Collections Management • Museum Collections

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre (Country) • Canada (Country) • North America • United Mexican States (Country) • Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-16 of 16)

  • Documents (16)
Documents
  • Bags, Biomarkers, and Biographies: Keeping up with Archaeological Science in the Collections Repository (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Wendi Murray. Julie Unruh.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Walk through any archaeological collection and you walk through a historical archive of collections storage practices. Best practices for collections storage evolve as materials science evolves, and storage decisions are realigned to maximize research potential. However, determining appropriate...

  • Bringing Artifacts Home: The Opportunities and Challenges of Collaborative Interpretation (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Young.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Place and context give meaning to the artifacts that archaeologists uncover. Yet, artifacts are usually curated in museums and archaeological repositories far from the sites where they were unearthed. This spatial disconnect is often a source of tension for descendant communities. Using the Homolovi...

  • Collecting Colonialism: Disembodied Culture at the Temple Anthropology Laboratory and Museum (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Leslie Reeder-Myers.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Like many small- to medium-sized anthropology departments in North America, Temple University houses a collections repository with a complex and poorly documented past. Beginning in the 1950s, more than 200 collections accumulated with limited direction, including ethnographic collections,...

  • Collections Care as Care Work: Examining the Gendered Nature of Museum Work in Archaeology (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Fladd. Sarah Oas. Sarah Kurnick.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite women receiving the majority of archaeology PhD degrees for decades, issues with gender representation continue within the discipline, such as the well documented underrepresentation of women in prestigious academic positions. It follows that the majority of archaeological museum collections...

  • Collections-Based Pedagogy: Where Pasts Meet Futures (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Hodge.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There has been a recognized teaching crisis in archaeology for at least 25 years—almost as long as there has been a “curation crisis.” In this reflection, I focus on collections-based university teaching in American archaeology. As in the popular archaeological imaginary, archaeological instruction...

  • Creating a Digital Reference Collection for the La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (2024)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Andrea Torvinen. Christopher Nicholson. Ben Nelson. Christopher Schwartz.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A long-running project in West Mexico, the La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (LQ-MVAP) has entered the final stage of the data life cycle with a shift from long-term curation and analysis of the physical materials to an open-access digital archive with training guides for data reuse...

  • The Creation and Curation of Archaeological Data (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn MacFarland.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Arizona State Museum (ASM) Repository holds collections associated with thousands of archaeological excavations that span the advent of anthropologically oriented archaeology in the American Southwest. Encoded with these collections are various approaches to excavation and data management, which...

  • The Ethics and Outcomes of Using Archaeological Collections for Education (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tamira Brennan. Maria Teresa Palomares. Georgia Abrams. Hannah Rucinski.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the ethical implications of using archaeological collections for education and outreach as well as the potential challenges that doing so poses to repositories and museums. We cover the benefits and burdens of accessioning donations, specifically discussing how to assess their...

  • A Future for Archaeological Collections from Federal Policy Perspectives (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen Martine. Emily Palus.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Federal archaeological collections acquisition and management practices are guided by decades-old law and policy, intended to uphold aspirational and perhaps unachievable expectations for preserving our nation’s heritage. The resulting “curation crises,” or, rather, the system that has become the...

  • How Indigenous Museology and Archaeology Can Contribute to the Well-Being of the Comcaac Community (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anabella Coronado.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The history and everyday lives of the Comcaac (Seri) people are intrinsically linked to their ancestral landscape on the central coast of the Sonoran Desert and the Gulf of California. The community’s powerful and complex oral tradition, language, and the continuous occupancy of their originally...

  • If We Build It, Will They Come? A Community of Practice for Archaeological Repositories (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Danielle Benden.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2021, caretakers and users of archaeological collections participated in a Wenner-Gren funded workshop that considered the social lives of archaeological repositories. The goal was to understand the repository as a site of social relations among and between stakeholders. Together, collections...

  • It’s Our Mess Now: Changing Values, Problematic Legacies, and Visioning Change in Archaeological Collections Management (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Bussiere.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, many leadership positions at archaeological repositories and museums have been filled by a new generation of archaeologists, collections managers, and curators. These early- and mid-career professionals’ education and training has taken place since the enactment of NAGPRA, and our...

  • The Meaning, Value, and Purpose of Things: The Evolving Idea of the Archaeological Museum Collection (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Dungan.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In addition to being tangible heritage and a material cultural record of the archaeological past, archaeological museum collections are products of archaeological and curation practice during and after the time of their collection. Likewise, the laws, rules, and procedures that shape archaeological...

  • Research and/or Stewardship of Tribal Collections? (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Travis Armstrong.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research and/or stewardship? Native American cultural materials excavated or collected by archaeologists, particularly at research universities, have focused on Western-defined “scientific” and educational values of these collections. Tribal members increasingly are challenging such ideas. They...

  • Transforming Policy and Museum Practices: Decolonizing Frameworks and UNDRIP in Canada (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenny Ellison.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Canadian Museum of History, a national collecting institution dating back to the mid-1980s, has undergone many transformations throughout its history, including to its name, mandate, and location. This presentation will outline how community collaboration and collections access has transformed in...

  • Where Does the Responsibility Lie? The Long-Forgotten Federal Collections and the Repositories that House Them (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jasmine Heckman.

    This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The federal government is responsible for a huge amount of archaeological collections in the United States, and yet not all of these collections are housed in federally compliant repositories, while many collections are not even known to exist by the agency. But whose problem is this—the...