[1] A wide range of expert areas contribute to funerary archaeology, including epigraphy, material culture studies, thanatology, human osteology, zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis.
[2][3] Funerary archaeology within the United States is also connected with the legal system after the implication of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) established in 1990.
[4] In order to determine if a tribe or descendant has cultural affiliation there are nine avenues to examine: geographical, kinship, biological, archaeological, anthropological, linguistic, folklore, oral tradition, and historial.
Archaeologists and Indigenous people can get a more thorough knowledge of the remains and foster cultural understanding and appreciation by working together in a respectful and collaborative manner.
For example, Hopi tribe has provided important contextual information about the use of natural resources and the significance of particular sites, which has helped archaeologists to interpret the data more accurately.