Communities of Practice (Other Keyword)
1-25 (125 Records)
Despite being the largest country in Central America, Nicaragua’s archaeological record remains the least explored and most ignored. One consequence of this is that reconstructions of Nicaragua’s prehistory have tended to rely overmuch on rather sparse (and not necessarily reliable) ethnohistoric accounts in which migration from Mesoamerican homelands is heavily emphasized, generally to the detriment of other kinds of cultural phenomena, including indigenous developments that are not explicitly...
After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape of Great Zimbabwe (2019)
This is an abstract from the "After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What was night life like at Great Zimbabwe? While this question excites imagination in numerous ways, in fact and myth, not much is known about nocturnal life in this ancient African urban landscape. Most archaeological reconstructions of urban life at Great Zimbabwe create the erroneous impression that the...
Against the Alienability of Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Congress: Multivocal Conversations Furthering the World Archaeological Congress Agenda" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Working with marginalized Black and Indigenous communities shines a light on the use of archaeological research to support struggles for heritage, recognition, and well-being in settler colonial states. We highlight archaeology’s potential to alienate, whether alienating heritage as...
Ancestral Pueblo Essentials: Evidence for Layered Social Institutions during the Basketmaker III Period in the Northern Southwest (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A range of evidence suggests that the Ancestral Pueblo tradition of the northern Southwest crystallized during the Basketmaker III period in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. As farming was adopted and populations expanded, social problems related to conflict mitigation, land tenure, and private...
Archaeology and Organic Residue Analysis: Formulations, Considerations, and Interpretations in Researching Psychoactive Substances (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over that last 30 years, organic residue analysis has transitioned from the occasional experimental project to a key component of scientific archaeological investigations. Methodologies have advanced, frequencies of studies have increased, and the range of investigated substances and characterized biochemicals expanded. Still, in some circles, the great...
Archaeology in Puerto Rico from 1960 to 1988: A Transition from Amateur to Regulated Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1952, Puerto Rico began a new era of self-administration. The establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico inspired the creation of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (1955). The propaganda given to indigenous heritage resulted in the rise of amateur archaeologists. This paper considers the contributions of these groups toward the development of...
Assessing the Suitability of Southern Africa for Archaeological Provenance Studies with Lead Isotopes (2018)
Evidence for trade between southern Africa and the Muslim world dates back to the 8th century CE. However, it is not until the 12th and 13th centuries, with the discovery of alluvial gold in southern Africa, that entanglement between the two regions intensified. As a result, state-level societies emerged and began incorporating aspects of the Muslim identity into their own culture. With the intensification of these trade relations, craftsmen began expanding their repertoire of iron and copper...
Attaining Goals Together: Collaborative Heritage Resource Stewardship and the Forest Service (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me: What Have We Learned Over the Past 40 Years and How Do We Address Future Challenges" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Passage of federal environmental laws during the 1960’s forced otherwise autonomous bureaucracies to accept professions into their ranks that previously had no place. Public lands agencies like the Forest Service were required to employ archaeologists once the National Historic...
Authority via Mobility: Interpreting Yamasee Ceramics (2018)
Yamasees worked as non-missionized laborers in Spanish Florida, raided for Charleston traders, fought to expand Georgia, lived with Creek Indians, and worked as diplomats and traders in Pensacola. Letters, speeches, and testimony demonstrate that this mobility— often leading them to outnumber local occupants— allowed Yamasees to dictate terms to and take vengeance against other Native Americans as well as Europeans. Despite such authority, pottery assemblages demonstrate the frequent adoption of...
Beads and Bohr Models: Using XRF to Discuss Choctaw Identity Formation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of a study that uses x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to examine European glass trade beads from the Chickasawhay Creek Sites (22KE630 & 22KE718) in Kemper County, Mississippi. Together, these two sites present a unique opportunity to examine Choctaw ethnogenesis. Although a combination of archaeological and ethnohistorical research has...
Blue Birds and Black Glass: Traditions and Communities of Practice during the Coalition to Classic Period Transition on the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico (2016)
Multiple lines of anthropological evidence demonstrate people moved from the northern San Juan region into the Pajarito Plateau in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries A.D. This Coalition to Classic period transition was a time of immense demographic and social reorganization that shaped the historical and cultural trajectories for future of Ancestral Pueblo people. As a consequence of the influx of diasporic households, how did this transformation affect traditions of obsidian...
Casma Occupation at Pan de Azúcar de Nepeña: Findings from the 2017 and 2018 PIAPAN Field Seasons (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Casma State Material Culture and Society: Organizing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Archaeological Evidence of a Re-emergent Ancient Polity" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1968 and 1973, Donald Proulx conducted surface surveys of the Nepeña Valley, registering sites spanning different time periods and cultural occupations. One of these sites, registered as PV31-29, is Pan de Azúcar de Nepeña, a Casma site consisting...
Ceramics Crossing Temporal and Cultural Boundaries in the Moquegua Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic vessels have been produced and in use for thousands of years. Ceramicists are tasked with the duty of creating unique wares and transmitting production knowledge through formal or informal apprentice relationships. In this poster, we compare the vessel forms and functions from the Middle Horizon sites of Cerro Mejia and Cerro Baul to the Late...
Chupadero Black-on-white: Communities of Practice, Identity, and Memory (2017)
Since the beginning of archeological research, style has been used to characterize and define numerous aspects of social interaction and complexity, including communities of practice which structure ways in which elements of material culture are transmitted. The persistent transmission of knowledge through time and space implies a long lived community of practice. Chupadero Black-on-white, produced in central and southeast New Mexico, was possibly the longest lived of all the Black-on-white...
Co-Creating Digital Heritage Resources in Ghana: How Is It Going? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Capacity Building or Community Making? Training and Transitions in Digital Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Funded by a Canadian SSHRC-funded partnership development grant, our working group of collaborators is engaged in training and capacity building in digital heritage methods in Ghana. Project aims include fostering a community of practice inclusive of archaeologists, heritage practitioners, students...
Collaborative Survey of Delaware Cultural Sites in Northeastern Oklahoma (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2019, the Delaware Tribal Historic Preservation Office (DTHPO) partnered with East Stroudsburg University (ESU) to conduct noninvasive surveys of seven significant cultural and religious sites in Oklahoma. With support from the National Park Service (NPS), the DTHPO-led survey utilized ESU equipment and training to conduct the survey with...
Comitan, “Place of Potters”: Evidence of Specialized Potters in the Valley of Comitan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent work documenting the stored artifacts in museums in Chiapas has led to the identification of large pottery urns, pots, and jars from the region of Comitan that share surprising similarities in manufacture and decoration. Dating to the Postclassic and Late Classic periods, it suggests that specialization was present in the Valley of...
Communities of Engaged Performance: Investigating Soundscapes and the Sonorous Past (2018)
The relationship between individuals and urban soundscapes can tell us about the personhood and sonic practices of people in the past. To reconstruct the interaction between a musician and audience in archaeological contexts, I introduce a novel theoretical framework called ‘communities of engaged performance’ (CEP). CEP is defined as the transmission of knowledge through performance resulting in variable group-specific sound practices. CEP is derived and builds upon theories of ‘communities of...
Communities of Practice and Ancient Andean Houses (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Communities of Practice in the Ancient Andes: Thinking through Knowledge Transmission and Community Making in and beyond Craft Production" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Comparative ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological case studies of house construction demonstrate the significance of communities of practice in the construction and maintenance of houses in the Andes. Key phases of house construction and maintenance...
Communities of Practice and Corrugated Pottery at Chevelon Ruin (2015)
During the A.D. 1200s and 1300s, the Colorado Plateau experienced widespread, large-scale migration and the subsequent aggregation of groups into large Pueblo communities. During this period, people migrated to the Homol'ovi area, aggregating into seven large pueblo settlements. The demographic upheaval resulting from this large-scale population movement brought diverse individual and group identities into contact and, potentially, conflict. Chevelon Ruin, one of the aggregated settlements that...
Communities of Practice and Panamanian Majolica Production (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper deals with the production of Panamanian majolica in comparison with other colonial ceramics. Chemical and mineralogical characterization show the use of a distinctive recipe for the production of this colonial ware. These results are consistent with previous interpretations that imply the community of potters controlled the production of the...
Communities of Practice and Sequencing from Older Caribbean Collections in the NMAI and NMNH (2018)
The Caribbean holdings of the National Museum of the American Indian and the Anthropology Department of the National Museum of Natural History contain material from historically important early excavations like those of M. R. Harrington in eastern Cuba in 1915 and Herbert W. Krieger in the Dominican Republic in 1928. Moreover, they include the results of early collection efforts by such luminaries as Jesse W. Fewkes and Theodor de Booy, which means that they contain some of the key specimens...
Communities of practice and variability/standardization of the ceramic assemblages: the indigenous people Asurini do Xingu (2017)
I intend to present some results of my ethnoarchaeological research (1996-2016) on the ceramic technology of the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous people (Tupi-Guarani linguistic family) who lives on the banks of the Xingu River - Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, I will demonstrate the relationship between the social organization of ceramic production and the standardization/variability of these artifacts over time. I will show how in Asurini context, teaching-learning framework,...
Communities of Practice of Metal Craftspeople on the North Coast of Peru, First Millennium CE (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Communities of Practice in the Ancient Andes: Thinking through Knowledge Transmission and Community Making in and beyond Craft Production" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper utilizes a Communities of Practice perspective to explore knowledge transmission of gilding technologies between craftspeople of the Moche and Vicus cultures during the first millennium CE on the north coast of Peru. Craftspeople played...
Community Training and Traditions: Accessing Archaeological Methodology In Creating a Baseline for Trail Stewardship (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Along the base of Muliwai Pali in Waipio Valley, Hawaii the King’s Trail gently travels through a traditional cultural landscape rich in moʻolelo (story) and genealogy. During the summer of 2020 descendants of Waipio, Muliwai and Waimanu participated in the documentation and mapping of select portions within a 1.5 mile corridor of this kuamoʻo (trail) from...