I am an archaeologist and my field work has largely been in
eastern North America mainly in Illinois and New York. My
research has revolved around a number of distinct theoretical issues
that are, nonetheless, loosely connected. These include the
role of trade in the development of social complexity in the mound
building cultures of the pre Columbian interior of the United
States; a new kind of urban archaeology that sees modern American
cities as major archaeological sites to be studied in their
entirety, firmly kinking the Native American to the more recent past
into one chronicle; the comparative cultural-historical study
of the politics in the past, in general and of the talismanic
qualities of human remains, in particular; and the ethical role of
archaeologists in analyzing and repatriating human skeletal remains
to community groups, especially to those living in today's Fourth
World. I am also interested in human rights issues as they
relate to indigenous peoples .
Current Research Projects
I am interested in the idea of the of the past as
a "political country"
over whose territory governments, interest groups
and citizens battle
In studying the politics of the past, I plan to
focus on the
transformation of human skeletal remains, in
different times and places, governments, revolutionaries, religions,
emerging states, and ethnic groups into icons of a desired body
politics. I have
recently become interested in the 17th century encounters between
the Algonquian peoples who lived in the Northeast and the arriving
Europeans and Africans. With this material, I add to the collective memory
of that time the major role that Native peoples played in the
creation of urban
landscapes in New York and other East coast
cities.
Works in Progress
Monographs
Essays in Honor of Howard D. Winters. Co-Edited
with Lawrence A. Conrad New York City's Archaeological Sites. With Diana
Wall. Yale University Press.
Articles
The Fate of His Bones, the Oracle of His Ashes:
The Use of Human Relics in the Construction of Society.
The Politics of the Contested Past: Fourth World
Peoples and First World Nation States.
Wampage: An Algonquian Patriot in Seventeenth
Century New York City.
The History of New York City Archaeology. With
Diana Wall.
Selected Publications:
Books
2001 Unearthing Gotham: the Archaeology of New York City.
With Diana Wall. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
2000 Ethics and Anthropology: Facing Future Issues in Human
Biology, Human Rights, Globalism, and Cultural Property. Edited
with Eva Friedlander and Madeleine Tramm. New York Academy of
Sciences, New York, Paperback edition distributed by John Hopkins
University Press.
1993 The Archaeology of New York City. Edited with Diana
Wall. Special Publications No.1, Professional Archaeologists of New
York City, New York, New York.
1984 Copper in Late Prehistoric Eastern North America. by
C. Goodman. Editor. Northwestern University Archaeological Program
and the Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, Illinois.
1981 The Research Potential of Anthropological Museum
Collections. Edited with James B. Griffin, and Nan. Rothschild.
New York Academy of Sciences. New York, New York
1980 Dickson Camp and Pond: Two sites of the Havana Tradition
in the central Illinois Valley, Illinois State Museum. Reports
of Investigation No.36, Dickinson Mounds Museum Anthropological
Studies. Springfield, Illinois.
Chapters in Books
2000 'Who Knows the Power of His Bones?': Repatriation Redux.
In Ethics and Anthropology: Facing Future Issues in Human Biology,
Human Rights, Globalism, and Cultural Property. Ed. by
Anne-Marie Cantwell, Eva Friedlander, and Madeleine Tramm.
pp.79-119. New York Academy of Sciences, New York, New York.
2000 Introduction. In Ethics and Anthropology: Facing
Future Issues in Human Biology. Human Rights, Globalism and Cultural
Propery. Ed. by Anne-Marie Cantwell, Eva Frielander, and Madeleine
Tramm. pp.vii-xx. New York Academy of Sciences, New York,
l986 The relationship between universities and
museums. In The Challenge of Folk Materials
for New Jersey's Museums. The Museums Council
of New Jersey. Trenton.
l986 Status report of the Society for American
Archeology's NortheastRegional Conference. With Bert Salwen. In
Regional Conferences Summary Report. Ed. by C.
Irwin- Williams and D. Fowler. pp. 78-97. Society
for American Archaeology Special Publication.
Washington, D. C.
l98l The research potential of anthropological
museum collections. With N. A. Rothschild. In
The Research Potential of Anthropological
Research Collections. Ed. By A-M. Cantwell, J.
B. Griffin and N. A. Rothschild. New York Academy
of Sciences, New York, New York.
l98l The future of the past. With N. A.
Rothschild. In The Research Potential of
Anthropological Museum Collections. Ed. by
A-M. Cantwell, J. B. Griffin and N. A.
Rothschild. New York Academy of Sciences. New York,
New York.
l980 Dickson Camp and Pond: Two Sites of the
Havana Tradition in the Central Illinois
Valley. Illinois State Museum. Reports of
Investigation No. 36, Dickson Mounds Museum
Anthropological Studies. Springfield, Illinois
Selected articles and book chapters
2000 'Who Knows the Power of His Bones?':
Repatriation Redux. In Ethics and Anthropology: Facing Future Issues in
Human Biology, Human Rights, Globalism, and
Cultural Property. Ed. by Anne-Marie Cantwell, Eva Friedlander, and Madeleine Tramm.
pp. 79-119. New York Academy of Sciences, New York, New
York.
1993 Something rare and strange: Reburial in New
York City. Northeast Historical Archaeology 21-22:198-217.
l990 The Choir Invisible: reflections on the
living and the dead. Death Studies l4:601-616.