Where Tradition and Pragmatism Meet: African Diaspora Archaeology at the Crossroads

Agbe-Davies, Anna S.

doi:10.1007/s41636-017-0004-8

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Archaeology offers a way to bring to light the lives, struggles, and strengths of disenfranchised individuals, groups, and communities. One such example is the archaeology of slavery and captives (e.g., Agbe-Davies 2017; Cameron 2016; Marshall 2014). To many, it can help answer questions of who they are and where they come from, including research on migrations and diasporas (e.g., Singleton 2010).…”

Section: The Current State Of Affairsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Collaborative Synthetic Research in Archaeology

Altschul

Kintigh

Klein

et al. 2018

Adv. archaeol. pract.

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While our fascination with understanding the past is sufficient to warrant an increased focus on synthesis, solutions to important problems facing modern society require understandings based on data that only archaeology can provide. Yet, even as we use public monies to collect ever-greater amounts of data, modes of research that can stimulate emergent understandings of human behavior have lagged behind. Consequently, a substantial amount of archaeological inference remains at the level of the individual project. We can more effectively leverage these data and advance our understandings of the past in ways that contribute to solutions to contemporary problems if we adapt the model pioneered by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to foster synthetic collaborative research in archaeology. We propose the creation of the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis coordinated through a U.S.-based National Center for Archaeological Synthesis. The coalition will be composed of established public and private organizations that provide essential scholarly, cultural heritage, computational, educational, and public engagement infrastructure. The center would seek and administer funding to support collaborative analysis and synthesis projects executed through coalition partners. This innovative structure will enable the discipline to address key challenges facing society through evidentially based, collaborative synthetic research.

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Section: The Current State Of Affairsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Collaborative Synthetic Research in Archaeology

Altschul

Kintigh

Klein

et al. 2018

Adv. archaeol. pract.

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show abstract

“…Taking out the obvious misogynoir, Battle-Baptiste's statements were not radical. African American archaeologists have been saying the same thing for the last thirty years-that there needs to be a radical reconfiguring of the discipline (Agbe- Davies 1998Davies , 2002Davies , 2003Davies , 2017Agbe-Davies and Martin 2013;Battle-Baptiste 2011;Carey 2019;Deetz and Jones 2006;Dunnavant et al 2020;Epperson 2004;Flewellen 2017;Franklin 1997aFranklin , 1997bFranklin and McKee 2004;LaRoche and Blakey 1997;Mack and Blakey 2004;Singleton 1997;Weik 2012;White and Draycott 2020). It is more than a call to simply be self-reflexive (Franklin 2001).…”

Section: Archaeology In the Time Of Black Lives Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 3 Our Only Sin Was Being Black: Reflecting on Maria Franklin (1997) in the Time of Black Lives Matter in Archaeology

Jones¹,

Carey²

2023

Archaeological Papers of the American

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It has been over 25 years since Maria Franklin (1997b) asked, “Why are there so few black American archaeologists?” While low numbers can still be attributed to Black Americans choosing to pursue more lucrative careers, we must also understand that barriers instituted and perpetuated by racism also play a major factor. Through highlighting the experiences of archaeologists from John Wesley Gilbert (1863–1923) to contemporary professionals, the legacy of racism and discriminatory treatment of Black archaeologists assists in answering Franklin's question. Though numbers have increased since the creation of the Society of Black Archaeologists in 2011, the retention of Black graduate students and professionals in the field is still a challenge. Revisiting this question in the time of Black Lives Matter in Archaeology may provide some clarity.

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“…Advancements in archaeological theory and practice have created new possibilities for reading cultural communication and the production of enslaved subjectivities—especially in the near-totalizing institutions of agro-industrial slavery (e.g. Agbe-Davies 2017; Bates et al 2016; Croucher 2012; Hauser 2017; Marshal 2015; Ogundiran 2002). This article makes a case for the utility of an aesthetic approach to the archaeological record, drawing on philosopher Jacques Rancière's theoretical frame for thinking through aesthetics and politics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Archaeology of the Aesthetic: Slavery and Politics at the Jesuit Vineyards of Nasca

Weaver¹

2020

CAJ

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This article makes the case for the utility of an aesthetic approach to the archaeological record, drawing on the philosophical work of Jacques Rancière on aesthetics and politics. The case of an archaeology of African slavery on Jesuit vineyards in colonial Peru is offered to explore nuances in power and the production of enslaved subjectivities that become visible through a consideration of aesthetic fields. Of particular interest are the aesthetics of administrative policy as materialized in space and the built environment and enslaved responses through aesthetic interventions. Rather than focusing on the specific meaning or hybridity involved in the creation of the material, a Rancièrean aesthetic approach considers how materials were potentially charged with multiple, sometimes contentious meanings through activation and engagement in the aesthetic experience.

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Where Tradition and Pragmatism Meet: African Diaspora Archaeology at the Crossroads

Abstract: The trope of "tradition" dominates archaeological studies of the African diaspora. Much of the information archaeologists have about traditions on the African continent or in the early diaspora comes from historical documents and from ethnography.

Cited by 25 publications

References 36 publications

Fostering Collaborative Synthetic Research in Archaeology

Fostering Collaborative Synthetic Research in Archaeology

Chapter 3 Our Only Sin Was Being Black: Reflecting on Maria Franklin (1997) in the Time of Black Lives Matter in Archaeology

An Archaeology of the Aesthetic: Slavery and Politics at the Jesuit Vineyards of Nasca

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