Seeing Migrant and Diaspora Communities Archaeologically: Beyond the Cultural Fixity/Fluidity Binary

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Seeing Migrant and Diaspora Communities Archaeologically: Beyond the Cultural Fixity/Fluidity Binary" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

How do we “see” migrant and diaspora communities archaeologically over different time scales? We revisit an old debate over the tendency for archaeologists to approach this question as a binary: (1) by interpreting materials associated with migrant and diaspora communities as culturally distinguishable and distinct or (2) by interpreting materials associated with migrant and diaspora communities as unique cultural hybrids, shaped by both places of origin and present contexts. In relying on interpretive methodologies that are static and cyclical, resulting narratives often focus on a set of culturally determined material traits that overshadow the long-term, complex social processes that distinguish different communities. We ask participants in this session to critically examine and discuss the methodological assumptions that they rely on as they do archaeology of migrant and diaspora communities. In turn, we also ask them to discuss approaches that have aided them in breaking this pattern. What archaeological methodologies have allowed them to “see” migrant and diaspora communities and their associated material worlds in a more nuanced way—a way that leaves space for process, continual movement, individual autonomy, multidimensional social identities, and/or dynamic networks of exchange?