The Archaeology Centers Coalition and RadioCIAMS present “SAPIENS Talk Back”: eight conversations with students and scholars that expand upon the insights of Season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast entitled “Our Past is the Future.” In this episode, we continue the discussion that began in episode 7 of season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast, a conversation that examines “repatriation” and what it means for archaeology. Our guests this episode are Dr. Rachel Watkins, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at American University and a specialist in African American biohistory, and Dr. Dorothy Lippert, an expert in repatriation and a tribal liaison for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

“SAPIENS Talk Back” was developed in collaboration with the Indigenous Archaeology Collective and the Society of Black Archaeologists, with special help from Drs. Sara Gonzalez, Justin Dunnavant, and Ayana Flewellen. Special thanks also to Chip Colwell and the production team at SAPIENS, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and House of Pod.  

This episode was made possible by financial support from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA with additional support from the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology. Hosts Ruth Portes and Claire Challancin from the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies join Dr. Wendy Teeter (UCLA), Mina Nikolovieni (Brown University), and Amanda Althoff (Columbia University) for a conversation on how to reshape the discipline.

SAPIENS Talk Back is a production of the Archaeological Centers Coalition. You can find more information about their work at archaeologycoalition.org.  RadioCIAMS is a member of the American Anthropological Association’s podcast library. Our theme music was composed by Charlee Mandy and performed by Maia Dedrick and Russell Dedrick. This episode was produced at Cornell University by Adam Smith, with Rafael Cruz Gil as engineer and Rebecca Gerdes as production assistant.