Research Programs
American Indian Program
Encourages research in areas of interest to Native Americans. Grants and internships are available to help native peoples visit the Museum and pursue their special interests.
Program in Human Ecology and Archaeobiology
The program's research examines the biological and ecological impact ofhuman exploitation on plants and animals, and the reciprocal impact of this relationship on the course of human cultural evolution. The program targets periods of human history beginning with early attempts to domesticate plants and animals, and explores the ecological and cultural implications of the development and intensification of agricultural economies up through the emergence of early urban societies. The geographical focus of the program is global, with special emphases in North, Central, and South America, Western Asia, and Europe.
Arctic Studies Center
In collaboration with Native peoples and arctic residents, the ASC studies northern peoples, cultures, biota, and ecosystems throughout the circumpolar region, with special attention to archaeology, ethnography, and natural history. Research projects include origins and relationships of arctic cultures, global change and human-environmental interactions, European-Native contacts and cultural transformations, and heritage preservation and community archaeology. ASC programs have pioneered new approaches in scholarship and public programs.
Human Origins Program
Focuses on the long history of ecosystemresponses to human pressures andvice versa. Museum researchers are piecing together the climatic and ecological conditions that allowed humans to evolve
Asian Cultural History Program
Investigates how humans in the Asia-Pacific region have influenced, adapted to, perceived, and used their environment through time.
Latin American Archaeology
This program supports international collaboration in the acquisition and integration of paleoclimatic, ecological, ethnographic, and archeological evidence to reconstruct the impact of changing environments and cultural diffusion on precolumbian cultural development in South America and the Antilles. It has sponsored fieldwork in Brazil, Bolivia, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, multi-year seminars in Brazil and the Caribbean, workshops on ceramic analysis in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, and international symposia in the US, Chile, and Ecuador. International collaboration has been facilitated by visits of a month to a year by archeologists from all South American countries.
Mexico-North / México-Norte
[Affiliated program] Promotes and facilitates innovative programs in research, education, and outreach focused on northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Repatriation Office
Works collaboratively with tribal representatives to determine the disposition of human remains and cultural objects.
Paleo-Indian Program
The Paleo-Indian Program is dedicated to understanding Ancient Peoples of theAmericas in the context of their natural, cultural, and spiritual worlds. In collaboration with interdisciplinary scientists, native peoples, students and teachers, avocational archeologists, and local residents, we explore the meaning of late Pleistocene-earlyHolocene archaeology through field and laboratoryinvestigations, public outreach and education, training of interns and fellows, and the development, study, and care of the nation’s premier Paleo-Indian collection of stone tools. As modern humans expanded across the earth, the last continents to receive them were the Americas. Smithsonian’s Paleo-Indian Program is a leading voice in the increase and diffusion of knowledge regarding these incredible stories of human adaptation and survival in times of dynamic environmental change.
Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology
The Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) is an intensive four-week residential training program in museum research methods for graduate students in cultural anthropolgy. It uses the Smithsonian's anthropological resource as a "field site," giving students hands-on experience in collecting and analyzing data from collections in conjunction with formal training methods, all centered around individual research projects.
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