Archaeology as Bearing Witness

Postmodernity has a distinctly pre‐apocalyptic feel to it, and this feeling has seeped into archaeology. A review of the scholarship from 2019 attests that archaeologists are having to reckon with present‐day conditions and phenomena as they structure their research, delineate the material world, and affirm archaeology's relevance. Furthermore, these concerns have moved from the realm of the rarely spoken and come to constitute a critical conversation in the field. In a number of respects, the contours of archaeology now hinge upon the discipline's responses to developments in real time, including: How can archaeological knowledge production escape the logistical and epistemological bounds of late capitalism and its failures? Can archaeology contribute to future‐building, and what would that look like? Does archaeology have to be scholar‐activism to achieve the goal of making the past matter (to whom) (for what)? [archaeology, contemporary archaeology, future archaeology, current issues]

“…In what ways does the recent scholarship on women in archaeology and the archaeology of women “bear witness” (Hauser et al. 2018) to misogyny in the field itself?…”

Section: We Toomentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting the Present: Archaeology in 2019

Rosenzweig

2020

“…These words “bear witness” (Hauser et al. 2018) and render in song the pain and resilience of Black women over the course of US history. As Giddens tells stories “that need to be told” through music, an archaeology for the twenty‐first century must go behind the scenes to uncover difficult histories that connect with the political present.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…An archaeology for the twenty‐first century must “bear witness” (Hauser et al. 2018) and go behind the scenes to uncover difficult histories that connect with the political present. Long‐term health care, respectful relationship education, affordable or free contraception, access to abortion and postabortion support, and financial and social support for women who want to continue a pregnancy—these are all choices that women have the right to perform and undertake.…”

Section: Praxis: Reproductive Oppression At the Intersectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behind the Scenes of Hollywood: An Archaeology of Reproductive Oppression at the Intersections

Barnes

2020

Reproductive oppression is the control and exploitation of women, girls, and individuals through our bodies, sexuality, labor, and reproduction. This archaeological research utilizes intersectionality and praxis as analytic tools to uncover reproductive oppression in the past and embolden reproductive justice in the present. At the nineteenth‐century Hollywood Plantation in southeastern Arkansas, the materiality of the past—census records, medicine bottles, toys, and grave markers—provides a lens onto the deep history of reproductive oppression and the ways people responded to it. By situating individuals and artifacts at the intersections, I interpret various artifacts from differing positionalities, focusing and refocusing the lens on all of the women who lived and worked in the house to understand the ways reproduction shaped their lives over time and to draw connections between the control over Black women's bodies exercised by slaveholders and the contemporary trend to limit women's control of their reproductive health. [historical archaeology, reproductive oppression, intersectionality, praxis, Arkansas]

“…In response, many archaeologists are exhibiting a profound concern about their roles as producers of historical accounts, contributors to the reification of heritage, and witnesses to social injustice and heritage destruction (Bernbeck and Pollock ; Bonacchi, Altaweel, and Krzyzanska ; Hamilakis ; Hauser et al. ; Klein et al. ; Shahab and Isakhan ).…”

Section: Contemporary Politics and Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

Kosiba

2019

Anthropological archaeology has long been a process of categorization. The history of the subdiscipline could be rendered in terms of an ongoing project to create, critique, and then refashion the categories by which archaeologists understand and explain social and ecological processes. Despite ever-changing theoretical tides, many archaeologists have continued to adhere to a lingua franca that demarcates their object of study, whether "the past," "nature," complexity, material culture, or historical knowledge. In 2018, strong currents in archaeological scholarship have both challenged and washed out the boundaries of many of these epistemological mainstays. This was more than a postmodern exercise to question metanarratives of history or to destabilize supposed social universals. The recent scholarship develops innovative theoretical perspectives and sophisticated methodological tools to shed light on the varied human interactions, practices, and projects that were previously occluded by research too sharply focused on bounded categories such as periods, polities, adaptations, and meanings. Furthermore, archaeologists are now more than ever critically examining the colonial institutions that they perpetuate and seeking to establish new common ground with Indigenous communities. A decidedly archaeological perspective seems to be taking shape.This is a view that sees social life from the ground up in terms of complicated relationships between people, things, and other organisms that cannot be reduced to catchall categories. [year in review, archaeology, archaeological theory, current issues, Indigenous archaeology, environmental anthropology] RESUMEN La arqueología antropológica ha sido durante mucho tiempo un proceso de categorización. La historia de la subdisciplina podría ser descrita en términos de un proyecto continuo de crear, criticar y luego rehacer las categorías a través de las cuales los arqueólogos entienden y explican los procesos sociales y ecológicos. A pesar de las mareas teóricas siempre cambiantes, muchos arqueólogos han continuado adhiriéndose a una lengua franca que demarca su objeto de estudio, ya sea "el pasado", "naturaleza", complejidad, cultura material o conocimiento histórico.En 2018, corrientes fuertes en la investigación arqueológica han tanto retado como difuminado los límites de muchos de los pilares epistemológicos. Esto fue más que un ejercicio posmoderno para cuestionar metanarrativas de la historia o para desestabilizar supuestos universales sociales. La reciente investigación desarrolla perspectivas teóricas innovadoras y herramientas metodológicas sofisticadas para arrojar luz sobre las variadas interacciones humanas, prácticas y proyectos que estuvieron previamente ocluidos por investigación excesivamente enfocada en categorías delimitadas tales como períodos, unidades políticas, adaptaciones y significados. Además, los arqueólogos ahora están más que nunca examinando críticamente las instituciones coloniales que perpetúan y buscando establecer un nuevo terreno común con las c...