Archaeology is also included within the humanities in the
United States. The National Foundation on the Arts and the
Humanities Act of 1965, which established the National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowmnent for
the Humanities (NEH), specifies the following about the
NEH:
"The term 'humanities' includes, but is not limited to, the
study of the following: language, both modern and classical;
linguistics; literature; history, jurisprudence; philosophy;
archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history,
criticism, and theory of the arts; those aspects of the
social sciences which have humanistic content and employ
humanistic methods; and the study and application of the
humanities to the human environment with particular
attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions,
and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the
current conditions of national life." (NEH Overview of
Endowment Programs, 1995:1).
In an unpublished study I prepared for a Wenner-Gren
conference on funding in anthropology held last February, I
noted that 30 of 35 NEH programs that existed in 1994-1995
fund programs in anthropology (archaeology, cultural and
linguistic anthropology). Those that did not were, in the
main, in primary and secondary education. NEH does not fund
scholarship in physical anthropology (primatology and
biological human evolution).
Therefore, archaeology is considered a social science at the
NSF and a humanities discipline at NEH. Given the current
political climate, we hope that these programs will continue
although the future of NEH as a federal funding agency is
cloudy.
Information about NEH archaeology programs can be sought
electronically from the Division of Research Programs:
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The current program officer for the program is Bonnie
Magness-Gardiner:
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I hope this helps to clarify some recent postings.
Charlie Kolb
Charles C. Kolb
National Endowment for the Humanities
Division of Preservation and Access
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506
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