Exploring our past and present to create a better future
Anthropology is the study of humans and our primate relatives, past and present.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s anthropology research and collections program spans three areas: archaeology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology.
Archaeology
Humans have lived in North America for more than 20,000 years, but the written history of the continent dates back less than 500 years. This leaves many questions for archaeologists to address: How and where did these early inhabitants live? What parts of their environments did they use? How did they interpret their world?
Artifacts are often all that remain of these first inhabitants. Archaeologists recover these materials, then describe and analyze them to interpret how prehistoric people lived in the same areas where we live today.
The Museum holds a collection of over one million pre-European contact Native American objects that range in age from 500 to 13,000 years. Our newly modernized Archaeology Collections storage area was funded in part by a grant from the Ohio History Connection's History Fund. The History Fund is supported exclusively by voluntary donations of Ohio income tax refunds, sales of Ohio History "mastodon" license plates, and designated gifts to the Ohio History Connection.
Biological Anthropology
Biological anthropology is the study of human beings and our living and fossil relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has several anthropologists who conduct ongoing research spanning human origins; modern human evolution and variation; health, diet, and disease; and forensic science. The team collectively curates the Museum’s biological anthropology collections, including the Hamann-Todd Human and Non-Human Primate Collections.
Cultural Anthropology
Human culture is studied through various methods, including through objects, which anthropologists call material culture. Culture encompasses the things that make us human—our art, societal structures, rituals, beliefs and morals, and even our collective knowledge. Culture shapes who we are and how we behave. Using cultural objects as their guide, some cultural anthropologists study the development and progression of different cultures throughout history, looking at both local and global context.
Repatriation requests
Our policy is to promptly and respectfully respond to any repatriation request and determine appropriate next steps with the inquiring party. Our institution is supportive of repatriation, and we have respectfully repatriated human remains and funerary objects that fall under NAGPRA as recently as 2021.
For repatriation inquiries, please contact Director of Collections Dr. Meghan Strong.
