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Bones Of Contention Summary

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The purpose of this class is to study the changes and development of the United States from the "pre contact" period to 1877. We talk about the different characteristics that have evolved and the transformations the United States has made between these time periods. Throughout the first part of this summer session, we have learned about events that have occurred by visual and literary sources. Some of these sources that we have viewed were, "The Pristine Myth", "Virgin Soil Epidemics", "The Unkindest Cut", and "Bones of Contention". Along with these texts, there were chapters from our textbook, "Give Me Liberty!", and various films that have helped in the teaching of this time period. One supplemental reading that I found particularly interesting was the "Bones of Contention". This reading was about a dispute between the Native Americans and physical anthropologists. The dispute was over whether the anthropologists, or the Native Americans got to keep skeletal remains. The physical …show more content…

The motive of the modern researches are that they think the skeletal remains should have been kept because they should stay safe. For decades the skeletal remains of humans from unmarked graves have been dug up for archaeological excavations. These remains have been collected by museums, universities, and government agencies. The majority of those remains being descendents of Native Americans. These museums, universities, government agencies, and physical anthropologists would pay for stolen remains and display them as a trophy of their studies, while the Native Americans motive was to get the remains back for tradition. They wanted their ancestors skeletal remains back so they could have a proper reburial. Their motives were related to their culture and religion, not just for their own greed like the

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