Indigenous Research and Archaeology: Transformative Practices in/with/for the Ngarrindjeri Community

The relationships between Indigenous peoples and archaeologists in Australia have consisted of conflict, consultation and collaboration. The literature looks at very little the roles and challenges met by Indigenous archaeologists and the issues that arise as a result of working between two different knowledge systems. This paper therefore will discuss the question of how archaeologists could modify their practice for better answering the Indigenous communities and treats this particular question by presenting my own work among the Ngarrindjeri nation of southeast South Australia. By the means of a lived experiment of conducting research with/in/for my community, I will consider the effect of the personal identity related to community stories while also examining how the knowledge of the interior can be at the same time complex but very significant for the development of archaeology.

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Resumé Par le passé, les rapports entre les aborigènes et les archéologues en Australie se sont avérés conflictuels, consultatifs et collaboratifs. Même si les aborigènes ont été impliqués dans la recherche archéologique, les chercheurs non-aborigènes ont été à l’avant plan dans le développement de méthodes et de techniques concernant la discipline archéologique à défaut d’avoir des aborigènes formés à cette discipline. Cet article se veut une contribution au développement actuel de recherche sur les méthodologies employées en archéologie par l’intermédiaire d’une discussion sur l’expérience d’un étudiant Ngarrindjeri récemment gradué en archéologie et qui travaille avec les communautés. Même si le cas présenté ici utilise la question hautement contentieuse et politique du rapatriement, l’objectif de cet article est de refléter les pratiques adoptées qui amènent à la transformation significative des procédures pour les archéologues Ngarrindjeri qui travaillent dans/avec/pour leur communauté afin de soutenir les efforts de protection de notre patrimoine culturel.

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Resumen Las relaciones entre los pueblos indígenas y los arqueólogos en Australia han sido de conflicto, consulta y colaboración. La bibliografía sobre el tema no tiene muy en cuenta los roles y los desafíos con los que se enfrentan los arqueólogos indígenas y las cuestiones que surgen como resultado de trabajar entre dos sistemas diferentes de conocimiento. Este artículo, en consecuencia, discutirá la cuestión de la manera en que los arqueólogos podrían modificar sus prácticas para dar una mejor respuesta a las comunidades indígenas; el artículo trata esta cuestión particular al presentar mi propio trabajo entre la nación Ngarrindjeri al sudeste del sur de Australia. Por la experiencia vivida al conducir una investigación en/con mi comunidad, consideraré el efecto de la identidad en relación a las historias de la comunidad a la vez que examinaré de que forma en conocimiento interior puede ser a la vez complejo pero muy significativo para el desarrollo de la arqueología.

     

Alveolar bone status of some pre-seventeenth century inhabitants of Taumako,Solomon Islands

The alveolar bone condition of 34 pre-seventeenth century Solomon Island Polynesians aged 20–35 years was investigated from dental remains. The distance between the cementoenamel junction and the alveolar crest (CEJ-AC distance) was measured for six index teeth. The mean CEJ-AC measurements for each tooth, which ranged from 3.9 to 7.9 mm, greatly exceeded the distance of 2 mm frequently cited as representative of teeth supported by healthy bone. Many pathological bony defects were seen, suggestive of episodes of acute periodontitis with remissions to a quiescent phase.     

Book reviews

CHINA

ERIC KIT‐WAI MA.Culture, Politics, and Television in Hong Kong. London: Routledge, 1999. 242 pp. Introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £55.00, hardcover.

LILY XIAO HONG LEE and SUE WILES. Women of the Long March: the Never Before Told Story. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1999. 308 pp. Photographs, preface, chronology, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. A$24.95, paper.

MARIE‐CLAIRE BERGÈRE. Sun Yat‐sen (trans. Janet Lloyd). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. xii, 480 pp. Illustrations, introduction, endnotes, bibliography, index. A$90.00, hardcover.

JAPAN, KOREA

MASARU KOHNO. Japan's Postwar Party Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997. xiii, 172 pp. US$65.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

SHARON A. MINICHIELLO (ed). Japan's Competing Modernities: issues in Culture and Democracy 1900–1930. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. xiii, 394 pp. Illustrations, foreword, preface, introduction, index. US$54.00, hardcover; US$25.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

DICK VAN DER MEIJ. India and Beyond: essays in Honour of Frits Staal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. 696 pp. $US110.00, hardcover.

ASHISH KOTHARI, NEEMA PATHAK, R. V. ANURADHA and BANSURI TANEJA (eds). Communities and Conservation. Natural Resource Management in South and Central Asia. New Delhi: Sage, 1998. 505 pp. Rs. 495, hardcover; Rs. 325, paper.

JAMES BROW. Demons and Development: the Struggle for Community in a Sri Lankan Village. (Hegemony and Experience. Critical Studies in Anthropology and History, Series Editors Hermann Rebel and William Roseberry). Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996. xviii, 218 pp. Index. US$45.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

REIDAR DALE. Evaluation Frameworks for Development Programmes and Projects. New Delhi: Sage Publications India, 1998. 150 pp. Index. Rs. 275, hardcover; Rs. 145, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

HANS ANTLOV and SVEN CEDERROTH (eds). Leadership on Java: gentle Hints, Authoritarian Rule. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1994. viii, 197 pp. £25.00, paper.

CORNELIA ANN KAMMERER and NICOLA TANNENBAUM (eds). Merit and Blessing in Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective. Monograph 45, Yale Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. 263 pp. No price given, paper.

IAN CHALMERS and VEDI HADIZ (eds). The Politics of Economic Development in Indonesia: contending Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Author notes, preface, acknowledgments. xxx, 269 pp. £60.00, hardcover.     

Nunavik and the Multiple Dimensions of Inuit Governance

ABSTRACT

Over the last five decades, the emergence of a sophisticated and multidimensional set of governance institutions in the predominantly Inuit regions of Canada and the circumpolar north has had a profound impact on the lives of Inuit peoples and the states in which they live. The region of Nunavik in northern Québec has played an important role in the political development of the Canadian and circumpolar Inuit, serving as both an institutional innovator and a key source of leadership at the regional, national, and international levels. Using a multilevel governance framework, this article explores the vertical and horizontal dimensions of Inuit governance in Canada and the circumpolar north. In particular, the article will focus on Nunavik’s contribution to and place in this multidimensional governance structure.     

Rehydroxylation of Fired‐Clay Ceramics: Factors Affecting Early‐Stage Mass Gain in Dating Experiments

To obtain accurate results in the RHX dating of ceramics, it is essential that the RHX measurements are continued until the rate of mass gain is constant with (time)^1/4. In this paper, we discuss how the initial stages of mass gain are affected by the specific surface area (SSA) of the ceramic material. The paper provides guidance on experimental protocols to avoid dating results being distorted by relatively early‐time mass gain data.     

Geographical intelligence: American geographers and research and analysis in the Office of Strategic Services 1941–1945

The paper provides an interpretation of the role played by the Research and Analysis (R&A) Branch at the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War, and, in particular, the contributions made by some American geographers. Richard Hartshorne was especially important because he held a key administrative position at R&A, Chair of the Projects Committee that oversaw all research publications. But other geographers were involved including Kirk Stone and Edward Ullman who produced strategic regional reports (the JANIS studies), and Arthur Robinson and Leonard Wilson who held key positions, respectively, in cartography and map intelligence. Conceptually, the paper is informed by Bruno Latour's writings on the history and sociology of scientific knowledge. Three of his ideas are especially pertinent: ‘centres of calculation,’ ‘translation,’ and ‘action at a distance.’     

Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner for 2005 * A New Look at the Affluent Worker: The Good Working Mother in Post-War Britain

The number of married women working outside their homes afterthe Second World War rose rapidly despite widespread criticismof working wives and mothers. This article discusses three maintrends associated with this change. First, many women reactedto the discourse criticizing working mothers by trying to changethe view of ideal motherhood as exclusively domestically bound.They defended their actions by arguing that a good mother wasnot solely one who stayed at the beck and call of her family,but one who nurtured their self-reliance and independence bynot being constantly available and provided goods and pleasuresotherwise out of reach of the family. Second, the criticismof working mothers combined with the dual burden that most womenfaced in choosing employment to create an unprecedented demandfor part-time jobs. The change in women's work force participationsince World War II is almost entirely attributable to the risein part-time workers. Third, because observers and the womenthemselves so often described wives’ work as providingextras for the family, the value of women's work was debased.This obscured women's role in creating the affluent societyand allowed the male breadwinner ideal to continue unaffecteddespite major social change, as the public still generally viewedmen as having primary responsibility for family support.     

A Minimum-Impact Method for Measuring Corrosion Rate of Steel-Hulled Shipwrecks in Seawater

Current research on USS Arizona is focused on a minimum-impact technique for calculating corrosion rate of the battleship's steel hull by analysing physical and chemical properties of marine encrustation covering the exposed hull. An equation is derived that allows concretion thickness, density, and total iron content to be used to calculate corrosion rate of steel hull plate.
© 2006 The Authors