Ethical Bioarchaeology in Practice: The View from Cusco, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ethical Dilemmas in the Study and Care of Human Remains beyond North America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

NAGPRA has served as a crucial signpost for U.S. bioarchaeologists in their efforts to be and do better, including those who study skeletal individuals from (and in) other regions of the world. In these contexts, the most important NAGPRA directive is arguably for U.S. bioarchaeologists to center the perspectives, concerns, and priorities of descent communities, including in-country bioarchaeologists, in their research designs, methods, analyses, and dissemination.

This is especially the case in the Cusco region of highland southern Peru. Two of us are Cusqueña and one of us is Anglo-North American; we thus bring our own experiences and training to bear on what “doing and being better” should look like for foreign bioarchaeologists working in this region. We discuss common perspectives and themes among different Cusqueño/a communities related to the excavation, analysis, and display of archaeological human remains. They include long histories of ancestor veneration and interaction with the dead; significant mobility and migration, necessitating a multilocal view of identity, ancestry, and descendants; and varying points of view related to the exhibition and custody of skeletal or mummified individuals in museums and research settings. Throughout, we stress the importance of flexibility and localized context in formulating an international bioarchaeological praxis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Ethical Dilemmas in the Study and Care of Human Remains beyond North America

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54113