THE POLITICS OF PLUNDER

A new book wades into the politics of collecting indigenous artifacts. “Using the recent controversy over “Kennewick Man”–the 9,500-year-old skeleton from the Columbia River that some anthropologists have incautiously described as “Caucasoid”–as allegory for 200 years of scientific aggression against indigenous identity, he argues that contemporary Indian intransigence about history has been largely shaped by the hubris and ghoulish exploits of the great men of science whose statues adorn our museums.” – New York Observer