SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human

The chart-topping and Signal Award-winning podcast “Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant” has returned for a brand new season. Produced by Nature on PBS, “Going Wild” is a sound-rich podcast about the human drama behind saving animals. This season, host and acclaimed wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant takes you on a journey through the entire ecological web—from the tiniest of life forms to apex predators. The new season is guided by one central question: “How can we, humans, look at our relationship to nature differently?” Dr. Wynn-Grant speaks to scientists, activists, and adventurers as they uncover all the different ways the natural world is interconnected. Explore the hidden world of extreme microbes thriving in the Boiling River in Peru with Dr. Rosa Espinoza, the “Amazon Jungle Scientist.” Listen to Christian Cooper, the man behind the infamous Central Park “Black birder” incident, on how growing up gay in the 80’s has led to his lifelong love of birds and nature.  Listen to the third season of “Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant” here: https://link.chtbl.com/LTZFSlMP?sid=Sapiens

Archaeologists around the world have long unearthed skulls with holes in them. But they were usually dismissed as natural accidents—the result of infections, birth defects, or animal bites. But in 1864 an archaeologist named Ephraim George Squier found a skull in Cuzco, Peru with a hole that was clearly not natural—it was square-shaped. The hole also showed signs of new bone growth around its edge, which meant the person couldn’t have been dead when the hole was cut. This skull was the first unquestionable evidence of something that scientists had long dismissed as impossible—ancient neurosurgery. Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music: “Trois Gnossiennes 3,” “Stately Shadows,” “Darklit Carpet,” “Vernouillet,” and “Tossed” by Blue Dot Sessions “Conjunto Sol del Peru,” by Pockra (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos) “Conjunto Sol del Peru,” by Wuaylias Tusy (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos) “Conjunto Sol del Peru,” by Ckashampa (Vol. 2: Musica de los Andes Peruanos) 

The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature is an award-winning, international radio and podcast series. Free to everyone, this series offers listeners and radio stations the opportunity to experience the conference year-round, and allows access to in-depth interviews with leading social and scientific innovators. It highlights diverse voices of grassroots leaders and voices that are often marginalized or excluded by corporate media. The programs cover a wide range of topics, including intelligence in nature, climate justice, food and farming, gender equity, Indigenous knowledge, reigning in corporate power, and youth activism. Learn more: https://bioneers.org/podcast-mobile-sign-up/

Outside/In from New Hampshire Public Radio is a show about the natural world and how we use it. The show combines solid reporting and long-form narrative storytelling to bring the outdoors to you wherever you are. The program casts a wide net across the environmental spectrum. They do fun explorations of nature, with lots of sound design and immersive scenes; they cover climate change and sustainability, but try to keep solutions to environmental problems in the spotlight; and they do pieces that are more philosophical, reflecting on ways in which society thinks about and depicts nature. Learn more: http://outsideinradio.org/

Deven Grey, a young, isolated mother in Alabama, reached a point of no return on December 12, 2017. She shot and killed her boyfriend, John Vance. Rather than face a jury, Deven accepted a “blind plea” deal. This is Deven’s story, reclaimed. From Lemonada Media, this is Blind Plea.  You can listen to Blind Plea at https://link.chtbl.com/BlindPleaPodcast Show notes: This series is created with Evoke Media, a woman-founded company devoted to harnessing the power of storytelling to drive social change. This series is presented by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. MCF supports leaders who work to shift the balance of power in their communities toward working people and families, and who have the vision and capacity for building a truly representative economy. Learn more at caseygrants.org or visit on social media @caseygrants.

When archaeologists excavate, they have some idea of what they will find in the ground. But in 2016, a team of archaeologists from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, was genuinely surprised when they uncovered a Victorian-era cache. In the process, they forged an uncommonly deep connection with an individual from the past.  Narrated by Anya Gruber, this story shows how archaeology can humanize the past and how loss can bring us closer.  SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  Anya Gruber is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, specializing in paleoethnobotany. She previously worked in New Mexico and currently works in coastal Massachusetts. Anya writes about a range of topics, including ancient diets, medicinal plants, mourning practices, and infectious diseases. Follow her on Instagram @anyagruber. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out these related resources:  ·   Cole’s Hill Memorial Cache: An Introduction at The Fiske Center Blog ·   From Dustpan to Daguerreotype  Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Aneho is a little historic West African town that is disappearing due to coastal erosion. But locals defy the sea and continue to live on the water’s edge. In this episode, we hear how their decision to stay in the face of an ever-approaching shoreline affects life along the coast and beyond. As reported by Koffi Nomedji, a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology from Lomé, Togo, we learn how as humans we variously face climate change–induced disaster.  SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  Koffi Nomedji is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at Duke University. He is currently working on questions related to climate change, policymaking, and development in Africa. His dissertation explores communities’ adaptation to coastal erosion in Togo, which is what he will be podcasting and writing about during his time in the SAPIENS fellowship program. Koffi has a rich professional background in international development. Prior to his doctoral journey, he served for eight years as a community organizer committed to local development and climate response in Togo. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Julio Tiwiram is a famous shaman in southeast Amazonian Ecuador. He is also a leading political figure among the Shuar people of Bomboiza. Growing up at the crossroads of social change and colonial conflict, his path to shamanism was anything but straightforward.  As reported by Sebastián Vacas-Oleas, a social anthropologist working with the Shuar people of Bomboiza, we learn how a mysterious shamanic gathering helped Shuar people mobilize their traditional knowledge to fight for their land against settler occupation.  SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  Sebastián Vacas-Oleas is a postdoctoral affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. He is also a lecturer and a visiting researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador. He is currently working as an editor on a Shuar-authored book of collected life histories, which includes the story of Julio Tiwiram and the events heard in this episode. Sebastián also helps coordinate a project with the Bomboiza Shuar Research Group, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, to study Shuar ancestral locations, migratory movements, women’s gardening practices, and change in Indigenous relations with their land.  SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out this related resource:  ·   You can visit Julio Tiwiram in Kupiamais, his home community, in the Bomboiza land reserve, where he sees patients in his home. You can read more about Bomboiza, its shamans, our forthcoming book, and other shared ongoing projects on www.bomboiza.org. Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

The world over people live with plants. Whether it’s in apartment bedrooms or backyards, it’s hard to find a human who doesn’t have some relationship with a plant. Enter paleoethnobotany, a field of archeology that examines plant remains to understand the historic alliance between humans and their vegetation. In this episode, host Eshe Lewis interviews archaeologist Katie Chiou to explore the spiciest human-plant affair: chili peppers. Katherine L. Chiou is an anthropological archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist whose research interests include foodways in the past and present, Andean archaeology, household archaeology, plant domestication, food sovereignty, agrobiodiversity, sustainability, GIS and data visualization, and responsible conduct of research. Katherine received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently an assistant professor in anthropology at the University of Alabama, where she oversees the Ancient People and Plants Laboratory. She is currently working on a project, funded by the National Science Foundation, to study and promote ethical cultures in the field of archaeology. Her writing and podcasting as a SAPIENS fellow will revolve around the subject of food, particularly the enigmatic relationship between people and chiles, past and present. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Jeri Hutton Green is a mother, daughter, and advocate for survivors of domestic violence and homicide in Baltimore, Maryland. Her journey as an advocate began when her mother went missing in April 2020. A text message launched a 2-year battle for justice for her mother and other missing Black women.  Reported by Brendane A. Tynes, a doctoral candidate in anthropology and an interpersonal violence survivor advocate, this episode explores what it means to survive domestic violence and police violence as a Black woman.  SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  Brendane A. Tynes is a Black queer feminist scholar and storyteller from Columbia, South Carolina. As a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Columbia University, she studies the affective responses of Black women and girls to multiple forms of violence within grassroots Black political movements. Her scholarship has received generous support from the CAETR, Ford Foundation, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She works with the Say Her Name Coalition and In Our Names Network to address sexual violence against Black women, femmes, girls, and gender-expansive people. Brendane also co-hosts the Zora’s Daughters Podcast, a Black feminist anthropological intervention on popular culture and issues that concern Black women and queer and trans people. Follow her on Twitter @brendanetynes. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out these related resources:  ·   “How Do We Listen to the Living?” in Anthropology News ·   “72-Year-Old Woman’s Ex-Boyfriend Begins Murder Trial for Her 2020 Death” ·   U.S. Department of Justice Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department Report (2016) ·   Black Women and Police Violence: A Primer from the University of Illinois Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

“Prime harvest”—that’s how one early 20th-century explorer described his collection of Icelandic human skulls. But why did he “harvest” those skulls in the first place? And what should happen to them now more than a century after they were collected? This case of the Icelandic skulls reveals an interconnected story of eugenics, international law, and the limits of current repatriation efforts.  As reported by Adam Netzer Zimmer, an Iceland-based anthropologist, we hear how a community once targeted by anthropologists is now expanding our ideas of how to ethically handle human remains. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human is produced by House of Pod. Cat Jaffee was the editor for this piece, with help from producer Ann Marie Awad. Seth Samuel was the audio editor and sound designer. The executive producers were Cat Jaffee and Chip Colwell.  Adam Netzer Zimmer is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst, specializing in biocultural anthropology. His research focuses on the rise of race-based anatomical science in 19th- and early 20th-century Iceland and the U.S. He is also interested in queer and feminist perspectives in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, particularly in the history of science. Adam’s work has been supported by a Fulbright/National Science Foundation Arctic Research Grant, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Leifur Eiríksson Foundation Fellowship. Previously, he was the laboratory manager for the UMass Taphonomic Research Facility and is currently a co–primary director of the Rivulus Dominarum Transylvanian Bioarchaeology project in Baia Mare, Romania. SAPIENS is an editorially independent podcast funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. Check out these related resources: ·   “Harvard’s Eugenics Era” in Harvard Magazine ·   Museums: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO) ·   Discovery: The Autobiography of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson ·   Traveling Passions: The Hidden Life of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson by Gísli Pálsson Episode sponsor: ·   This episode is included in season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast, which is part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Being human is complicated. We require food and shelter. We have histories to contend with. We create rituals to control fate. We steal. We fight. We kill. We love. We shape the environment to suit our needs—sometimes with terrifying results. This season of the SAPIENS podcast embraces the diversity of human experience, digging deep into our human past and how we live today. The throughline of this season is the way in which humans use cultural beliefs and practices not only to explain the past but also to imagine the present and future. These stories aspire to understand how cultures can guide knowledge of human truths and help all of us to become seekers of wisdom. Join season 5’s host, Eshe Lewis, on our latest journey to explore what it means to be human. Season 5 of the SAPIENS podcast was part of the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship funded with the support of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Today, we're sharing a teaser from our friends at Whetstone Magazine. They've started something called the Whetstone Radio Collective (WRC). The WRC is a collection of podcasts telling narrative stories through the lens of food anthropology.  To learn more, visit: https://www.whetstonemagazine.com/radio  

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:   From SAPIENS: Why the Whiteness of Archaeology Is a Problem Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act  New York African Burial Ground  The Mismeasure of Man 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.

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.   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.     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:   About Whitney Battle-Baptiste About Stratford Hall From SAPIENS: The Resistance and Ingenuity of the Cooks Who Lived in Slavery   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. 

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    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.    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:   The indivisibility of land and mind: Indigenous knowledge and collaborative archaeology within Apache contexts Ndee Hotspots: Ethics, Healing and Management  From Sapiens: Why the Camp Grant Massacre Matters Today   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.

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.   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.    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:   Slavery and Freedom at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington  From SAPIENS: How Museums Can Do More Than Just Repatriate Objects   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.

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.   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.    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:   Shockoe Hill African Burial Ground  From SAPIENS: A Weak Commission Brought Forth Survivors’ Truths, but Has It Made Reconciliation Possible? From SAPIENS: Archaeology’s Role in Finding Missing Indigenous Children in Canada 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.

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. 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. 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: Diving with a Purpose  Cornell University's RadioCIAMS  Gabrielle Civil, an American performance artist La Vaughn Belle artist statement  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.

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.   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.    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:   From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology Land Acknowledgments Are Not Enough   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.