Doing Archaeology as a Feminist: Introduction

Gender research archaeology has made significant contributions, but its dissociation from the resources of feminist scholarship and feminist activism is a significantly limiting factor in its development. The essays that make up this special issue illustrate what is to be gained by making systematic use of these resources. Their distinctively feminist contributions are characterized in terms of the recommendations for “doing science as a feminist” that have taken shape in the context of the long running “feminist method debate” in the social sciences.     

The Old Kinchega Homestead: Doing Household Archaeology in Outback New South Wales, Australia

The Kinchega Pastoral Station in western New South Wales, Australia, was one of the earliest and largest in the area. A study of one of the station's homestead is demonstrating how the integration and negotiation of material and documentary evidence produces information on domestic behavior in rural Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and highlights the activities of women and children in an environment whose history has been dominated by the exploits of men.     

A Very Remote Storage Box Indeed: The Importance of Doing Archaeology with Old Museum Collections

Although our practice has come to be defined by a focus on excavation as the trademark of archaeological research, research on archaeological collections lies at the scientific heart of the discipline. We demonstrate through two very different case studies how a return to primary sources (in this case, boxes of artifacts) can upend our understanding of the objects themselves and create new narratives of social and technological change. At the same time, access to museum collections is becoming increasingly difficult as institutions struggle with the growing pressure to enhance public outreach and modernize data management, while simultaneously contending with persistent budget cuts. As archaeologists who work closely with museum curators and museum collections, we offer suggestions for how researchers can work with museums to ensure that future generations of researchers and the general public can learn from the ancient materials preserved within their collections.     

Historical Archaeology as Modern-World Archaeology in Argentina

Historical archaeology has grown at a remarkable pace in the last decade. South America has seen a major growth in historical archaeology, with archaeologists in Argentina playing a large role in the maturation of the discipline on the continent. Much of this archaeology can be characterized as “modern-world archaeology” because of the archaeologists’ interest in issues relevant to post-Columbian cultural history.     

Maroon Archaeology Is Public Archaeology

Researchers of the contemporary past have sought to be instrumental in public dialogue about how artifacts speak to heritage matters relevant to living communities and decision-making polities (Emberling and Hanson, Catastophe!: the looting and destruction of Iraq’s past, 2008; Gibbon, Who owns the past?: cultural policy, cultural property, and the law, 2005; Mullins, Places in mind: public archaeology as applied anthropology, 2004; Renfrew, Loot, legitimacy and ownership: the ethical crisis in archaeology, 2000; Skeates, Debating the archaeological heritage, 2000). This approach has made archaeology a public endeavor that serves the needs of inquisitive researchers, as well as those groups of individuals whose lives may be directly affected by the excavation, analysis, and interpretation of archaeological remains. This paper will broadly assess how the archaeology of Maroons—tribal communities of runaway slave descendants—has affected the application of scholarly research in the former Dutch territory of Suriname, SA. The shift in relevance is due to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights 2007 judgment that allows Suriname Maroons to assert decision-making authority on matters of land management and development in ancestral and contemporary habitat. Vital to this endeavor is, Maroon involvement in archaeological research and more importantly, an overhaul in Surinamese antiquity laws.     

Toward a Collective Historical Archaeology

In this paper, I begin with ideas of difference and try to weave together aspects of our disciplinary structure, contemporary theoretical critique, and research agendas to show how our emphasis on difference, multiplicity, and individual identity makes it difficult to comprehend all that we share and constrains our political action to only local concerns. Instead, the kind of archaeological research that I envision focuses on commonalities through questions of labor, class and capitalism geared toward developing an understanding of all that we as people share.     

《盘龙城》:一部商代考古研究的力作

本通过对《盘龙城》一书的评介,论述了盘龙城遗址的分期断代以及化性质的探讨的科学价值和学术意义,强调了时空关系的研究在城址考古学研究中的重要性。     

Archaeology in Translation

In this editorial I note a type of resistance to the hegemony of English in academic contexts and call for consideration of expanding on this development. In an editors note I go on the credit assistant editors Marcia Bezerra, Julie Holowell and Alexander Hererra who were inadvertently not acknowledged in the volumes to which they contributed.

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Resumen En este editorial hago notar una cierta resistencia hacia la hegemonía del idioma inglés en contextos académicos y hago un llamado a considerar la expansión de este desarrollo. En una nota editorial doy crédito a los editores asistentes Marcia Becerra, Julie Hollowell y Alexander Herrera, quienes inadvertidamente no fueron reconocidos en los volúmenes donde ellos contribuyeron.

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Résumé Dans cette rédaction, je remarque une résistance à l’hégémonie de l’anglais dans le contexte académique, ce qui demande une certaine réflexion pour nous étendre sur ce sujet. Dans une note de l’éditeur dans laquelle je suis mentionnée, les rédacteurs adjoints Marcia Bezerra, Julie Holowell et Alexander Hererra n’ont pas, par inadvertance, été reconnus dans les publications auxquelles ils ont contribué.

     

Training and Maritime Archaeology in a University Context

This paper draws on experience gained by Bournemouth University to consider undergraduate education in maritime archaeology. At Bournemouth maritime archaeology is taught firmly in the context of a broader archaeological education. Archaeological programmes vary with the institutions within which they are taught, each programme thus having an individual character that separates it from that of other institutions and further enriches the subject through the breadth of this education. At Bournemouth the value of teaching archaeology with a high component of practical experience has been long understood. This does not mean that archaeology is taught as a purely practical subject but as one within which experience in the field is seen as a worthwhile focus. Bournemouth’s programme therefore recognises the value of field research projects as learning environments for undergraduates studying maritime archaeology. The programme is subject to a number of constraints, notably the size of the archaeological employment market, levels of pay within that market, questions of ongoing professional development after graduation, and the requirements of other employment markets into which archaeological graduates enter. This paper argues that research project-based learning, and in particular, involvement with amateur groups, provides a way to balance these constraints and supports development of both technical and transferable ‘soft’ skills.

Maritime Archaeology in Uruguay: Towards a Manifesto

We report a collaborative maritime archaeological project in Uruguay, one of several Latin American countries where the subject is undergoing review in terms of the ways it is practised and managed. Uruguay is typical of many states where there has been a tension between a heritage-based approach in which the results of investigations are viewed as publicly owned, as opposed to the profit motive in which commercial and personal gain is the underlying ethic. This project was conceived both as a way of assisting the Uruguayan Heritage Commission in promoting the former approach as well as advancing a programme of research into the age of global exploration. This paper sets out the rationale of the initial field season and reflects on subsequent developments.     

Archaeology, History, and Historical Archaeology in South America

This paper discusses the relationship between history and archaeology in general, their common concerns and links with historical archaeology. It deals with the development of historical archaeology in three related South American countries, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and pays attention to recent trends in the theory and practice of the discipline in the area.