Anthropology

Archaeologists study the material remains of humans across time and space. From the stone tools of the earliest humans to the landfills we are contributing to today, the study of things allows us to write histories of peoples and places that are often left out of official records.

This project-based intensive contributes new data to our understanding of the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve’s land use history. Students work as a team every Friday morning and sometimes supervise volunteer contributors.

Collecting Native American objects and human remains was once justified as a way to preserve vanishing cultures. Instead of vanishing, Native Americans organized and asked that their ancestors be returned, along with their sacred objects. This course examines the development of American museums and the ethics of collecting cultures to anchor our study of repatriation.