Accumulation, Cultural Capital, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Abstract

Museums have long been important to cultural understanding as well as sites of cultural conflict. One of the issues that is most pressing and straddles the expanse of the cultural understanding/conflict spectrum is Native American remains in the United States. A recent Department of Interior rule clarifying the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has strengthened the rights of Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and lineal descendant by making clearer their rights and their ability to ask questions of museums holding certain Native American remains and artifacts. I argue that a Marxist perspective can help explain the rule, and that such an explanation may be a foundation for improving ongoing discussions about Native American remains and artifacts in museums. Through a Marxist museology, I unpack the ways in which museums continue to function under a logic of capital accumulation despite the rule's necessary corrective.