Political Geologies in the Ancient and Recent Pasts: Ontology, Knowledge, and Affect

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Political Geologies in the Ancient and Recent Pasts: Ontology, Knowledge, and Affect" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session traces political geologies in the recent and ancient pasts to unsettle how archaeologists grapple with landscape, earthly materials, and politics. How is the practice of geology political? In what ways do earthly materials co-create politics? Recent scholarship has queried (1) Western knowledge production in the earth sciences as well as (2) the ontology, affect, and agency of geological materials. Political geology emphasizes that knowledge about and the categorization of earthly materials is always rooted in particular historic and ontological frameworks. Scientific practice frames, selects, and excludes certain materials, reflecting particular political projects. Simultaneously, anthropologists and geographers have documented the meaningful roles that geomaterials have in social life cross-culturally, while also revealing ontological equivocations between discrete communities. At issue are the multiple perspectives on what geomaterials are and who has the power to define, utilize, consult, and protect them. In what ways do archaeological ceramics, metals, stone objects and architecture, and agricultural landscapes⁠—consisting of specific technologies and geological know-how⁠—⁠represent “partial connections” and political ontologies? What kinds of frameworks can help us better understand and describe ontological and political conflicts as gleaned through archaeology? Thinking through such questions may lead to a more representative and equitable archaeology.