SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human

Latest Episodes:

Repatriation Is Our Future Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, or NAGPRA, is supposed to curb the illegal possession of ancestral Native American remains and cultural items. But a year after it was passed by the U.S. federal government, a significant African burial ground in New York City was uncovered. And there was zero legislation in place for its protection. Dr. Rachel Watkins shares the story of the New York African Burial Ground—and what repatriation looks like for African American communities.

(00:00:44) Enter the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology and its NAGPRA controversy.
(00:03:19) A discovery in Manhattan is not covered by NAGPRA.
(00:05:19) Intro.
(00:05:44) Dr. Rachel Watkins, the New York African Burial Ground Project and Michael Blakey.
(00:11:40) Dr. Rachel Watikins meets the Cobb Collection.
(00:23:44) Exploring Repatriation for the New York African Burial Ground Project.
(00:28:26) The issue of repatriation for the Cobb Collection.
(00:34:02) Revisiting season 4.
(00:40:49) Credits.

SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human, is produced by House of Pod and supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is also part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. This season was created in collaboration with the Indigenous Archaeology Collective and Society of Black Archaeologists, with art by Carla Keaton, and music from Jobii, _91nova, and Justnormal. For more information and transcriptions, visit sapiens.org.

Thank you this time also to The Harvard Review and their podcast, A Legacy Revealed for permitting us to use a clip from Episode 4 I Could See Family in Their Eyes, hosted by Raquel Coronell Uribe and Sixiao Yu and produced by Lara Dada, Zing Gee, and Thomas Maisonneuve.

Additional Sponsors:

This episode, and entire series, was made possible by the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, UC San Diego Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University, UMASS Boston’s Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, UC Berkeley’s Archaeological Research Facility, and the Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Additional Resources:

Guest:

Rachel Watkins is a biocultural anthropologist with an emphasis on African American biohistory and social history, bioanthropological research practices, and histories of U.S. biological anthropology.

Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

Archaeology helps reimagine a fuller range of experiences, including how people ate, innovated, and rebelled. In this episode, “slave cuisine” opens a window to honor the legacy of Black creativity, resistance, and community.

Dr. Peggy Brunache, a food historian and archaeologist, finds shellfish remains in a village of enslaved people, uncovering an untold story of how people found ways to resist. Dr. Kelley Deetz uses Southern food, which is really African food, to initiate difficult conversations about the history of slavery.

(00:01:44) A history of asking “why” – from Caribbean markets to American history classrooms.
(00:04:50) Introduction.
(00:05:56) Dr. Peggy Brunache’s journey to food archaeology as a Haitian-American.
(00:13:57) Uncovering slave cuisine.
(00:22:33) Dr. Kelley Deetz describes education through food at Stratford Hall.
(00:30:43) Slave cuisine today.
(00:34:38) Credits.

Additional Sponsors:

This episode was made possible by the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility and the Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Additional Resources:

Guests:

Dr. Peggy Brunache is a lecturer in the history of Atlantic slavery at the University of Glasgow and the first director of the newly established Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies. Follow her on Twitter @peggybrunache.

Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz is a historian and archaeologist who works as the director of collections and visitor engagement at Stratford Hall, the director of education and historic interpretation at Virginia’s Executive Mansion, and a visiting scholar in the department of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

More than a Mountain Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

The sky island of Dzil Nchaa Si'an is more than a mountain. It is a significant landmark in Arizona for Apache tribal members to collect medicinal plants, perform ceremonies, and connect with their ancestors. It is also a site of resistance against the development of an observatory informally known as the “Pope Scope,” for its ties to the Vatican.

(00:01:47) A history of competing interests atop Dzil Nchaa Si'an, or Mt.Graham.
(00:04:18) Introduction.
(00:05:06) Nick and the “Pope Scope” conflict.
(00:07:04) About Field schools and Apache Trust Lands.
(00:08:49) How Nick becomes an archaeologist.
(00:11:09) Sacred vs holy on Mt. Graham.
(00:14:30) Fire on Mt. Graham illuminates value systems.
(00:18:32) Apache lands and the 1872 Mining Act.
(00:23:19) Guidelines for archaeology learned from Apache ways of knowing.
(00:25:18) The Apache methodology of Ni.
(00:31:00) Credits

Additional Sponsors:

This episode was made possible by the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Additional Resources:

Guest:

Dr. Nicholas Laluk is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in east-central Arizona. He completed his Ph.D. at University of Arizona and is currently an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Curating as Caretaking Mar 02, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, museum curators challenge the status quo and connect their ancestry to advance how history is told in cultural institutions. Mary Elliot brings listeners behind the scenes into the Slavery and Freedom exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. And Dr. Sven Haakanson helps re-create an angiaaq, which is like a kayak, at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington.

(00:01:24) Meet Mary Elliott, the curator of American slavery at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
(00:06:46) Introduction.
(00:07:20) How Mary Elliott began tracing her own ancestral roots.
(00:11:43) How Dr. Sven Haakanson begins his studies of the Alutiiq people.
(00:15:57) A year of ethno-archaeology with the Nenets.
(00:20:49) resurrecting the Angyaaq.
(00:26:47) Sven and Mary share best practices and protocols for being museum curators.
(00:33:13) Credits.

Additional Sponsors:

This episode was made possible by the Brown University’s Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology and Columbia University’s Center for Archaeology and the Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Additional Resources:

Guests:

Dr. Sven Haakanson Jr. is Sugpiaq and was born in Old Harbor on Kodiak Island, Alaska. He is a curator of North American anthropology at the Burke Museum, and an associate professor in anthropology at the University of Washington.

Mary Elliot is a curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Follow her on Twitter @Mne7829.

At the Heart of It All Feb 16, 2022

Show notes

For its practitioners, archaeology can feel like it is unearthing events deep in the past … until it doesn’t. What is the experience of researchers who discover their life stories are tied to an archaeological site? Dr. Kisha Supernant and Lenora McQueen share their journeys to the unmarked graves of First Nations and Métis peoples and African American burial grounds, respectively, and how their connections to their ancestors transform their work.

(00:00:16) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission seeks to understand what happened at Indian residential schools.
(00:01:02) Dr. Kisha Supernat introduces her work as a Méthis archaeologist uncovering unmarked Indigenous graves at residential schools.
(00:03:34) Introduction.
(00:06:43) How Dr. Kisha locates unmarked graves.
(00:10:45) Lenora McQueen shares her search to unmarked African American burial grounds.
(00:12:23) The story of the Shockoe Hill African Burial Ground.
(00:15:58) Introducing heart-centered archaeology.
(00:23:41) Credits.

Additional Sponsors:

This episode was made possible by the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropological Archaeology and the Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Additional Resources:

Guests: Dr. Kisha Supernant is Métis/Papaschase/British and the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University of Alberta. Follow her on Twitter @ArchaeoMapper.

Lenora McQueen is an educator, researcher, community historian, and advocate for the preservation and interpretation of African American historic sites in Virginia.

Redrawing Boundaries Feb 02, 2022

Show notes

For many, archaeology means digging up historical artifacts from beneath the ground. But to some, that framework is also violent and colonial. What would it mean to leave ancestors and belongings where they’re found? In this episode, Gabrielle Miller, a PhD student studying African Diaspora Archaeology at the University of Tulsa shares a story about excavations in St. Croix. And Dr. Ayana Flewellen and Dr. Justin Dunnavant discuss how black archaeologists began uncovering sunken slave ships.

(00:02:26) What parts of Archaeology as we know it should be preserved? And what needs to be destroyed?
(00:02:51) Introduction.
(00:03:24) Gabrielle Miller explains their research on the Free Black Community in St. Croix.
(00:07:07) Meet, a ship called the Guerrero.
(00:08:43) How Diving with a Purpose originated.
(00:09:39) Justin Dunnavant and Ayana Flewellen create The Society of Black Archaeologists.
00:12:25) A guide to underwater, or maritime archaeology.
00:16:09) What Black Feminist archaeology is adding to the field.
(00:21:29) How learning from artists can help stretch the academic container.
(00:25:17) Credits.

This episode was also sponsored by the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego and The Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

For more information and transcripts, visit https://www.sapiens.org/.

Additional Resources:

Guests:

Gabrille Miller is a PhD student at the University of Tulsa studying African Diaspora Archaeology. Her current research engages the expressions and legacies of freedom and resistance in an eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century free Black community in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands in collaboration with the heritage practitioners, artisans, historians, and descendants of that community.

Dr. Justin Dunnavant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His current research in the US Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver.

Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen (they/she) is a Black Feminist, an archaeologist, a storyteller, and an artist. Flewellen is the co-founder and current President of the Society of Black Archaeologists and sits on the Board of Diving With A Purpose. They are an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. Her research and teaching interests address Black Feminist Theory, historical archaeology, maritime heritage conservation, public and community-engaged archaeology, processes of identity formations, and representations of slavery.

Guided by the Past Jan 19, 2022

Show notes

Hosts Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali share how they found their way to archaeology and what it means to be Black and Indigenous archaeologists. From defying the status quo in a classroom to diving through sunken ships, Ora and Yoli bring listeners on a journey of reclaiming stories and reimagining history.

(00:00:10) How hosts Dr. Ora Merek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali met.
(00:03:27) Why Indigenous archaeology is not the same as non-Indigenous archaeology.
(00:09:11) What is Maritime archaeology?
(00:12:18) Important vocabulary for Season 4.
(00:18:10) What is the future of archaeology?
(00:19:38) Credits.

Additional Sponsors:
- The Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies
- The Denver Museum of Nature & Science
- The Imago Mundi Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas

For more information including episode transcripts, visit https://www.sapiens.org and check out the following resources:

About The Hosts:

Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez (she/her/asdzaìaì) is a citizen of the Diné Nation, she's also Nez Perce. A Director at the Native American Cultural Center, her work includes supporting & ensuring the success of Northern Arizona University Native American & Indigenous students through Indigenized programming & services. An Assistant Professor in the Northern Arizona University Anthropology Department, her research interests include Indigenous archaeology & heritage management, research and approaches that utilize ancestral knowledge, decolonizing & Indigenizing methodologies and storytelling in the creation of archaeological knowledge to reaffirm Indigenous connections to land & place. Dr. Marek-Martinez is a founding member of the Indigenous Archaeology Coalition.

Yoli Ngandali (she/he/hers) is a member of the Ngbaka Tribe from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Ronald E. McNair Fellow, and a Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology at the University of Washington. Her research interests span Archaeologies of colonialism, Indigenous archaeology, Archaeologies of Central Africa, Trans-Indigenous traditions of culture sharing, Black & Indigenous futurity, digital conservation science, remote sensing, and multi-spectral imaging. Her doctoral dissertation develops digital and community-based participatory research approaches to Indigenous art revitalization within museum settings and highlights Indigenous carving traditions in the Pacific Northwest.

Our Past is the Future Jan 12, 2022

Show notes

We're launching a new season, asking what makes you … you? And who tells which stories and why? SAPIENS hosts Ora Marek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali explore stories of Black and Indigenous scholars as they transform the field of archeology and the stories that make us … us.

(00:00:02) Meet Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali.
(00:00:51) How season four came to be.
(00:01:53) Season four previews.

For more information including episode transcripts, visit https://www.sapiens.org and check out From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology.

About The Hosts:

A Startling Link Between Neanderthals and COVID-19 Dec 08, 2020

Show notes

SAPIENS host Chip Colwell speaks with evolutionary geneticist Hugo Zeberg about his surprising discovery of a connection between Neanderthal DNA and a greater risk for severe COVID-19. Zeberg is also a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.Read the paper in Nature Zeberg co-authored announcing the discovery: “The Major Genetic Risk Factor for Severe COVID-19 Is Inherited From Neanderthals.”

Moments of Resilience Amid a Pandemic Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

SAPIENS host Chip Colwell speaks with Melanie Adams, the director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum (ACM), about #Moments of Resilience, the ACM’s effort to document and eventually tell African Americans’ stories about the times we're living through now. They also discuss the unique role of a community museum, the value of oral history, and the communities the ACM serves from its home in Washington, D.C.

Check out these links to the three stories Melanie reads in this episode:

The following pieces are sources Chip mentions in his introduction: