Salvage anthropology is related to salvage ethnography

Salvage ethnography

Salvage ethnography is a term used by anthropologists beginning in the 1960s used as part of a critique of 19th century ethnography and early modern anthropology. The term was coined by Jacob Gruber, who identified its emergence with 19th century ethnographers documenting the languages of peoples...

, but involves the collection or salvage of cultural artifacts and even human remains as its method. In the late 19th century native populations were on the decline and early anthropologists feared that native societies would go extinct. This caused a worldwide collecting fervor among museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

s who purchased cultural artifacts to complete their collections on primitive societies. Anthropologists, amateur researchers and other scholars traded, purchased and even stole cultural artifacts from indigenous societies throughout the world, but particularly in North America, to finance their research and expenses.
Salvage Anthropology developed largely in response to destruction of habitations and force movement of people in cases of large scale new construction of roads, buildings, dams, etc.