The Future Is Fluid...and So Was the Past: Challenging the 'Normative' in Archaeological Interpretations

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Future Is Fluid...and So Was the Past: Challenging the 'Normative' in Archaeological Interpretations," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Is archaeology complicit in erasing past identities that do not conform to modern "normalized" roles? Recently, the discovery of a female Viking with "male" funerary goods sent ripples through the discipline (Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. 2017), female leaders in the Andes are downplayed as "matriarchs" (Zorich 2013), and Hatshepsut's gender representation in Egypt is considered an attempt as "passing" as a male Pharaoh (Matiq 2016). These shocking findings project modern biases on past societies, specifically with regard to which bodies were excluded and silenced. Whose story is reconstructed in archaeological interpretation?

While traditional archaeology remains constrained by expectations of assemblages as reflective of the "intrinsic" qualities exemplifying the dichotomous nature of "the other" (i.e. male or female, oppressed or oppressor, "normal" or not), Queer theory has gained ground in exploring and challenging heteronormative interpretations of the archaeological record. In this session, we explore queer theory as a theoretical and methodological "tool for deconstructing the normative" (Blackmore 2011). Participants will reconsider specific artifacts, events, or "cultures" that have "normal" interpretations, and explore different readings from a queer approach. We explore different aspects of identity that construct individuals of past societies while disentangling our restrictive understandings of sex, gender, class, and race.