The "ancient Peruvians" of American anthropology: the archeology of the 19th century Andes as a nexus of global research

Authors

  • Christopher Heaney The Pennsylvania State University, United States

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15381/arqueolsoc.2024n40.e26565

Keywords:

history of anthropology, history of archaeology, bio-antropología, Samuel George Morton, Julio César Tello

Abstract

Between 1820 and 1920, American anthropologists acquired more human remains of Andean origin than those of any other individual population worldwide. This article explains why in 1965 in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, anthropologists represented the growth of all humanity using 160 Andean skulls. Using archival sources, it argues that the excavation and interpretation of Andean ancestors in Peru prior to 1900 was foundational to the development of Americanist anthropology as a whole, and should be understood as the necessary preface to the more famous development of archaeology in Peru under Uhle and Tello. Exploration of this history is necessary in light of recent efforts in the United States to return or repatriate ancestral remains to source communities.

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Published

2024-06-24

Issue

Section

ARTÍCULOS ORIGINALES

How to Cite

The "ancient Peruvians" of American anthropology: the archeology of the 19th century Andes as a nexus of global research. (2024). Arqueología Y Sociedad, 1(40), 169-198. https://doi.org/10.15381/arqueolsoc.2024n40.e26565