TY  - EJOU
AU  - Munday, M. Harrison
TI  - Antiscientific Laws? A Brief Defence of Repatriation Laws
T2  - Journal of Controversial Ideas

PY  - 2025
VL  - 5
IS  - 3
SN  - 2694-5991

AB  - Weiss’s paper argues that repatriation laws prevent further research and new scientific knowledge, particularly in anthropology. For Weiss and others, these laws are unscientific. In this commentary, I offer a brief defence of repatriation laws. I argue that these laws prevent further significant historical harms and trauma that can result from research on Native American remains and that researchers ought to embrace such laws. Furthermore, I suggest we have reason to be sceptical about Weiss’s argument.
KW  - repatriation laws
KW  - NAGPRA
KW  - repair
KW  - Native Americans
KW  - antiscientific
DO  - 10.63466/jci05030023