ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s two extremely public conflicts occurred between archaeologists and Indigenous peoples over the repatriation of items of cultural heritage significance. Although separate conflicts – one occurred in Australia, the other in the USA – and focused on very different material heritage, there were significant similarities in the ways in which these conflicts were conducted, regulated and expressed. In Australia, what has been called the ‘La Trobe Affair’ developed over the control over secular material culture and was popularly believed to have precipitated the ‘death of archaeology’ (Maslen 1995a). What became known as the ‘Kennewick Man’ case in America centred on the repatriation of human remains, and has been defined as the case that ‘will determine the course of American archaeology’ (Preston 1997: 72). The aim of this book is to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the social consequences of archaeological theory and practice. My intention is to illustrate how conflicts over the disposition of cultural heritage, like those above, are framed by archaeological discourse and how, in turn, the politics of cultural heritage and archaeological theory are inextricably intertwined.
