What is “NAGPRA” and why is it controversial in the discovery of historical artifacts?


Image source: pbs.org
NAGPRA stands for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It is a federal law passed in 1990 that states a process for museums and federal agencies to return Native American artifacts to their original, lineal descendants or tribes. These could be human remains, sacred objects, funerary objects, or artifacts of cultural patrimony. While it all sounds black and white, museums and agencies are deeply challenged by this law, making it a controversial cultural debate over the years.


Since NAGPRA’s legislation, it became a common belief that American Indians were happy about its passing. However, there were still some natives who felt that government was not doing enough to compensate for the damages that they have inflicted over the course of history. These include theft from the tribes and the damage that science has brought.

Image source: theangryhistorian.blogspot.com

At the same time, archaeologists and museum curators believe that NAGPRA is a free pass for Native Americans to throw revenge as they spitefully take back museum collections so they can destroy them. Museums were at the vanguard of this controversy, and were ordered to make complete inventories of all remains and objects of any cultural significance within the next five years.


It is a daunting task, considering how much work will be put into re-examining the vast collections and some objects that have been on loan to other learning institutions or museums for more than a decade. Since the NAGPRA’s legislation, there are still 118,000 sets of American Indian remains that have yet to be returned.


Sadigh Gallery is a family-owned, New York-based art gallery specializing in ancient art works, ancient artifacts, and coins. They also do appraisals to avoid fraud, fake, and ripoff products. For more articles about collecting ancient artifacts, visit this page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Beginner’s Guide To Ancient Art

Image
The modern world has always been fascinated with art from the cultures of ancient societies and cultures, from Greece and Rome to Mesopotamia and China. Art from these places and people are of great historical value, mostly found in museums, and often fetch high prices among collectors. Image source: ancientartpodcast.org Some drawings and paintings are carved in the walls of caves, what most scholars call prehistoric art. Evidenced by unearthed and discovered art of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age, mankind has always been trying to replicate beauty and make sense of the world. The earliest Paleolithic art, for example, is epitomized in the Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, which have been found in the Auditorium cave in Central India. These date back to at least 290,000 BCE. Mesolithic and Neolithic art likewise refer to ancient art produced in the Stone Age. With the onset of the Bronze era, the best examples of ancient art are in the work found in the Mediterranean, the so
Read more

Casting light on the Roman oil lamp

Image
Image source: ancientresource.com At the height of its power, the Roman Empire covered much of West Asia, approximately a fourth of Europe, and the entire northern coastal area of Africa. The vastness of its territory meant that society today has been gifted with countless ancient artifacts and ancient arts from the Empire scattered across the world. An example of the artifacts is the Roman oil lamp, which Sadigh Gallery has plenty of. Almost every Roman then possessed an oil lamp because it was their primary source of light during the night. Oil lamps were said to be one of the most common items that can be seen in households during the ancient times. While several materials can be used for creating ancient oil lamps, the Roman versions were usually made of ceramic, particularly gypsum or plaster. This allowed for ornamentation of the lamp to the liking of its creator. The Romans were quite fond of divinity, art, and nature, themes that were apparent in the design of t
Read more

The Most Collectible (And Expensive) Coins

Image
Coin collecting is a truly fun hobby to get into, especially as you become more and more familiar with different coin types, their respective age, and how limited the production is. However, not all coins are available to the public. The rarest and most valuable ones are often just sold in high-end auctions or kept in museums (finding ones for sale is reason enough to think they might be fakes). Hereunder are some of the most collectible ones that should make the devout numismatist’s mouth water. 1913 Liberty Head nickel What makes this nickel highly sought-after is that it was pressed without the permission of the U.S. mint, which had changed the design to that of a Native American. Only five pieces became available to the market, and the most expensive piece was sold for $3.7 million (and it wasn’t even in mint condition). Image source : ngccoin.com 2007 C$1m coin This massive, 100-kg coin was specially minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. It
Read more