Archaeologies of Heart: Exploring the Role of Emotion and Spirit in Archaeological Research and Practice

Feminist and indigenous models of research and wellbeing invite us to fully utilize our emotional, social, intuitive, and spiritual selves, as well as our best intellectual and rational selves, in our research pursuits. In this session, we propose to explore ‘Archaeologies of Heart’, in research practices, pedagogies and outcomes. What propelled this session was our asking: If we all love archaeology so much, why don’t we talk more explicitly about our feelings? Why don’t we get our hearts involved in our work and research in more than an implicit manner? Our collective goal is to find and speak our unique and authentic voices about issues in our discipline that matter to us and to develop means by which we can begin to transform archaeology to incorporate our whole selves, from the individual to the community, classroom, and institutional levels. Drawing on the growing literatures on heart-centred practice, indigenous ontologies, and feminist perspectives, we invite our panelists to consider and reflect on questions and concerns: What are heart-centred practices? What do they look like and how would they translate into archaeology? What would be the outcomes of a heart-centred archaeology? How might it change the interpretations we make about the past?