This article posits that the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life (SETI) remains grounded in a hierarchical and progressivist worldview that has fueled colonialism throughout history. Building upon the work of Enrique Dussel and Arthur Lovejoy in particular, the author demonstrates how previous earthly explorations produced a covering over of others, rather than a “discovery.” Those working in SETI fields must consider these histories. This article advocates for more engagement with Indigenous studies scholarship to reach a genuine frontier—a metaparadigm shift beyond object-oriented scientific methods, which are a key component of what the author calls “settler science.”
Reviewed by David ShorterOur Lives is part ethnography, part museum exhibit review, partly a historical record, and collectively groundbreaking. No single text elsewhere does all that Jennifer Shannon has accomplished and with such eloquence. Building upon and giving detailed texture to previous scholarship in the museum decolonization movement, Shannon's work extends that conversation and studies both the larger structural matters of exhibiting cultures as well as the face-to-face conversations between indigenous community leaders, curators, museum visitors, and staff members. Shannon spent two years in the field, here meaning the multi-sited engagements of exhibiting and curating culture, where she refined her rich insights into the overlaps and frictions between anthropology and museology. As an adept writer with a sweeping ethnographic attention, Shannon more than achieves her goal of differentiating how museums and Indigenous peoples represent Native cultures; she additionally demonstrates how museums might best be understood as artifacts of negotiations, battles, and perhaps bittersweet concessions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.