Sins of the Shovel - Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology

"Rachel Morgan's frank and incisive history begins with Richard Wetherill's "discovery" of Mesa Verde in Colorado in 1888. Subsequent expeditions by amateurs, looters, and budding professional archaeologists abetted the devastation of Indigenous sites throughout the Southwest. These expeditions became the proving grounds for different conceptions of what archaeology should be and how it should be practiced. Ultimately, revulsion at the work of nineteenth-century explorers led to more rigorous and ethical norms, as well as federal regulation, but the core issues of how we ought best to engage with the evidence and people of the past remain live ones today. Morgan, an archaeologist, knows well the field's history of racism and unethical behavior, and she is both unsparing and even-handed in assessing what happened in the Southwest and how it informs relations among people-and with the planet-today"--

About the author

Rachel Morgan is an archaeologist based in Virginia. She has published widely about historical archaeology and material culture.

Product details

• Authors: Rachel Morgan, Morgan Rachel
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.11.2023
• EAN: 9780226822389
• ISBN: 978-0-226-82238-9
• No. of pages: 312
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 160 mm x 10 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, HISTORY / United States / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Relating to indigenous peoples, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Archaeology by period / region, History of the Americas, The Americas, Relating to Native American people, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Native American Studies, HISTORY / Indigenous / General, Relating to Native American people / First Americans