This study addresses some of the most controversial issues in the pursuit of archaeology and anthropology today: models and concepts of evolution; selectivity in what is rated worthwhile for purposes of academic research and study; and the profound disturbance of indigenous cultures by the exhumation and reburial of human skeletons for purposes of research. Recent events connected with the last of these issues, in the United States and Australia in particular, have called into question the relationship between archaeologists and contemporary cultures and peoples. This in turn has led some...

This book offers a critique of the all pervasive Western notion that other communities often live in a timeless present. Who Needs the Past? provides first-hand evidence of the interest non-Western, non-academic communities have in the past.

The first text to address the contentious issues raised by the pursuit of anthropology and archaeology in the world today. Calls into question the traditional, sometimes difficult relationship between western scholars and the contemporary cultures and peoples they study and can easily disturb.