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The ethics of archaeology, subsistence digging, and artifact looting in Latin America: point muted counterpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2005

D Matsuda
Affiliation:
607 Texas Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA

Extract

The author portrays the indigenous populations who engage in subsistence digging of sites in Latin America both as a means of supporting themselves economically and as a way of connecting themselves to their past and their ancestors who left the buried remains as a type of gift to their descendants. The article is also critical of the mainstream archaeologists, who, according to the author, hide behind the veil of scientific objectivity. Finally, the author juxtaposes the varying competing interests, particularly against the backdrop of denial of basic human and economic rights in these regions, and poses the question, to whom should these cultural remains belong?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The International Cultural Property Society

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