Results of the 2015 Repatriation Survey

Summary

In 2015, the Society for American Archaeology conducted a survey on members’ opinions on repatriation and the SAA’s Statement Concerning the Treatment of Human Remains. Among other things, this survey was intended to gauge support for changing the SAA’s statement to privilege the wishes of Native American communities, to emphasize scientific values, or to more strongly recognize interests of multiple stakeholders. The majority of the 1,905 respondents to the survey believe that the SAA’s Statement Concerning the Treatment of Human Remains should be changed, but opinions are divided on how best to revise it. The paper will show how beliefs about changes to the SAA Statement Concerning the Treatment of Human Remains are related to reported demographic factors, including year of degree, work setting, research region, and past experience with repatriation. Survey results reveal that attitudes towards changing the Statement differ amongst groups who earned degrees in different decades and who have different previous experiences with repatriation. Results of interviews with a few individual identified with the different positions will provide additional context for discussing the statistical results.

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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