Gazing at the Horizon: The NAGPRA Stories Yet to be Told

Summary

What will NAGPRA look like in 25 or 50 years? The horizon is constantly shifting; it looks bright and dark, clear and complicated. Social research on the first generation of archaeologists to emerge after the passage of NAGPRA suggests that NAGPRA will remain relevant and important. At the same time, the increased diversity of this generation and an emerging post-racial world will challenge the concept of identity that lies at the heart of NAGPRA. Digital technologies will provide new methods for studying the archaeological record and making collections and archives readily accessible to people outside the academe. The proliferation of digital information, however, will open avenues for cultural appropriation that cannot be remedied through NAGPRA. Collaborations on research and cultural resource projects will continue to yield benefits in multiple ways, but the repatriation and reburial of human remains and other collections will necessarily limit some research. A few aspects of NAGPRA implementation are unlikely to change, including attempts to weaken cultural resource protection laws and the everyday business of implementing NAGPRA at the local level. The wildcard for any predictions is the courts, whose decisions may run counter to prevailing understandings of the law and change the course of implementation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• NAGPRA Applied: Stories from the Field on its 25th Anniversary

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