Brittany Waldrep

Archive for December, 2009

Anthropology at The National Museum of Natural History is all about what makes us human, our place in nature, our common concerns and our differences. National Museum of Natural History anthropologists explore these issues through laboratory and collections-based research at the Museum and at field sites throughout the world. The National Museum of Natural History anthropology staff build and maintain the Museum’s world class collections which now include more than 600,000 objects documenting the diversity and accomplishments of humankind. Museum anthropologists also teach others about what they have learned through exhibits, school age educational programs, public programs and opportunities for advanced training. This thorough, thought-provoking web site also includes outside links to research projects conducted by the National Museum of Natural History and other institutions, among them the Field Museum’s New Guinea Research Program, a a fascinating multidisciplinary endeavor bringing together expertise in archaeology, social anthropology, human biology, museum studies, and data analysis to explore the history and human diversity of the southwest Pacific. Since 1987 the New Research Program (NGRP) has been using the world-famous ethnological collections at the Smithsonian and other institutions as a starting place “benchmark” for researching the social life, prehistory, and contemporary cultural change on the Sepik Coast of New Guinea.