Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

If community archaeology is to be truly participatory, then approaches to integrating local understandings and interests in cultural heritage with archaeological ways of knowing need to be further developed. Such methodological innovation requires an expansion of explanatory spaces to accommodate epistemologies that can be radically different. We draw upon the concept of "braided knowledge", a Native American Anishinabe concept introduced to community archaeology by Sonya Atalay. As archaeologists seek to construct partnerships with Indigenous and local communities, braiding together different knowledge systems, arguably, presents the most profound opportunity for meaningful collaboration and also the greatest challenge. Cross-threading different ways of knowing and doing is not easy, however, and sometimes there are significant barriers to reaching rapprochement. Examples of successful and not-so-successful synergies in the areas of community and collaborative archaeology, archaeological field methods and practices, research design, interpretive frameworks, and rationales for conservation are presented from across the Western Hemisphere in the spirit of fomenting discussion and refining braided-knowledge approaches.

Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Indigenous • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Public and Community Archaeology • Historic Preservation • Pueblo • Historic • podcast • Tribal Consultation • Indigenous perspective

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • Arizona (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Utah (State / Territory) • Nevada (State / Territory) • California (State / Territory) • USA (Country) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory)

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  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dylan Clark. Patricia McAnany. Sonya Atalay.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recently, archaeologists have turned to more collaborative and participatory approaches and are considering more centrally the impact and relevance of archaeology to the contemporary world. The past is deeply rooted in communities, and integrating local...

  • A Braiding, Not Abrasive, Approach to Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Archaeology: The Eastern Pequot Example (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Silliman. Katherine Sebastian Dring. Natasha Gambrell.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A key challenge in the development and sustainability of collaborative archaeological approaches with indigenous communities is ensuring that community members participate as true partners in knowledge production and dissemination. If not, hopes for a braiding...

  • Challenges, Opportunities, and Kuleana: Historic Preservation in Hawaii (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Regina Hilo.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Working and consulting with the community is built into Hawaii’s historic preservation laws and statutes. I work for the History and Culture branch of the State Historic Preservation Division, and my main role is mitigating effects to human skeletal remains, iwi...

  • Converging or Contradictory Ways of Knowing: Assessing the Scientific Nature of Traditional Knowledge in Archaeological Contexts (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only George Nicholas.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional knowledge (TK) has become a familiar element of ethnobiology and anthropology but only recently has it gained the attention of the "harder" sciences (e.g., archaeology, biology, climatology). However, many archaeologists have an uneasy alliance with TK...

  • Passing the Microphone: The Heritage Voices Podcast as Community-Based Archaeology (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessica Yaquinto. Lyle Balenquah.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Heritage Voices Podcast, hosted by the Archaeology Podcast Network, centers the voices of indigenous and traditionally associated peoples in discussions on anthropology, cultural resources and heritage, and land management. This includes a focus on community...

  • Tribal Consultation: What We Lose When It’s "My way or the highway" (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Betsy Chapoose.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over my years as Director of the Cultural Rights and Protection Department for the Ute Indian Tribe, I have seen tribal consultation in many different forms. In my presentation, I will be talking about tribal consultation as collaboration and how we can all move...

  • Ute "Prayer Trees", the Cultural Resource that Never Existed (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cassandra Atencio. Alden Naranjo. Garrett Briggs.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tribes regularly fight the destruction of their cultural resources and the appropriation of their culture. But what happens when someone appropriates a cultural resource that never existed in the first place? The three Ute tribes have been regularly engaged over the...

  • Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Historic Presevation Office Reflections on Tribal-Archaeologist Collaborations (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nichol Shurack. Terry Knight.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Historic Preservation Office has worked regularly with archaeologists. While archaeology focuses largely on scientific understanding, the effects of this work on tribes and other stakeholders also needs to be considered. Through this talk,...

  • A Weaver’s Work: The Concurrent Advancement of Tribal Sovereignty and Archaeological Practice in Southern California (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lee Clauss.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Reflecting on work within a Serrano community and their ancestral territory, in this presentation, I will discuss how community-based conceptions of self and landscape, cultural mores related to the treatment of ancestors and artifacts, and the application of...

  • Youthful Visions of Time and Place: Photovoice Methodology in Three Maya Communities (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Khristin Landry-Montes. Daniela Angélica Garrido Durán.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeology, and to greater extent academe in the Western world, is evolving from a past couched in the comfort of objective truths and universal knowledge focused on static places and societies. However, now more than ever, there has been a push towards...

  • Zuni Perspectives on Historic Preservation (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Spears. Kurt Dongoske. Maren Hopkins. T. J. Ferguson.

    This is an abstract from the "Braiding Knowledge: Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative Approaches to Archaeological Heritage and Conservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The federal historic preservation program of the United States is built on a framework that privileges Western epistemologies of time and space and perceives historic properties as inanimate and valuable for their scientific potential. The concept of historic...