March 24, 2026

I Got Canceled for Studying Bones… Here’s What Happened | Dr. Elizabeth Weiss (E191)

1 hour 31 minutes

Anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss argues that expanding repatriation policies and identity-driven academic trends are restricting access to skeletal collections and reshaping anthropology away from empirical science.

Guest bio

Elizabeth Weiss is a physical anthropologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at San José State University. She studies skeletal remains, taught human osteology and forensic anthropology, curated the Ryan Mound collection, and is the author of On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors and Repatriation and Erasing the Past.

Topics discussed

NAGPRA and the expansion of repatriation rules

Loss of skeletal collections in universities and museums

How repatriation affects research, teaching, and forensic anthropology

Kennewick Man and the reburial of ancient remains

The shift from physical anthropology toward identity politics

“Pretendians,” academic cancellation campaigns, and administrative pressure

The effect of DEI bureaucracy on universities and anthropology departments

Why students increasingly go abroad to study osteology and archaeology

The future of anthropology in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe

Main points

Weiss says repatriation has moved far beyond its original purpose and now threatens to remove not just human remains, but also associated materials, replicas, scans, and even teaching collections.

She argues that once skeletal collections are lost, future research is permanently limited, especially in biological anthropology, archaeology, and forensic science.

Teaching with real bones matters because students need hands-on experience identifying fragments, variation, and differences between human and non-human remains.

Weiss sees Kennewick Man as a major turning point, saying his reburial helped open the door to repatriating other very ancient remains.

She argues that traditional knowledge is increasingly being treated as overriding scientific evidence in repatriation decisions.

According to Weiss, the field has shifted away from intellectual curiosity and scientific rigor toward identity politics, activist scholarship, and moral posturing.

She says university administrators can still pressure tenured professors by cutting off resources, access, and institutional support, even if outright firing is difficult.

Weiss also argues that higher education bureaucracy benefits from expanding categories like homelessness, food insecurity, and identity classification.

Despite her criticism, she still believes anthropology is too fascinating to abandon and hopes the field can recover.

Books discussed

On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors — Elizabeth Weiss

Repatriation and Erasing the Past — Elizabeth Weiss and James Springer

Laws and policies discussed

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)

California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA)

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
💬 For guest suggestions, questions, or media inquiries, reach out at https://elpodcast.media/
📬 Never miss an episode – subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
⭐️ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the show. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening!

...more

View all episodes

By El Podcast Media

99 ratings