Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Ethical archaeological practice is driven by theory; thus archaeological field schools should also espouse a clear theoretical framework at the outset, particularly as concerning collaboration with and expectations of students, community members, and project leaders (Borck 2018; Cipolla et al. 2019; Clarke and Phillips 2012; Gonzalez and Edwards 2020). The Proyecto Arqueologico Rios Culebra-Colin 2022 field school applied an anarchical approach to both the past and present by avoiding assumptions of the necessity of hierarchy or organized power. To execute this vision, students helped create and agreed upon codes of conduct, participated in many aspects of fieldwork (excavation, total station mapping, lab work, community consultation, etc.), and were central to the ongoing archaeological knowledge production even after the digging was done. This session highlights the results of this approach by presenting (1) the archaeological findings from Buen Suceso, a multicomponent site in coastal Ecuador and the focus of our 2022 field excavations; (2) results from community heritage work with local Dos Mangas residents; and (3) student reflections on the field school experience. By presenting these papers in one symposium, we emphasize the interconnectivity of these activities, rather than seeing them as siloed or of ranked importance in the archaeological endeavor.
Other Keywords
Andes: Formative •
Ecuador •
Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis •
Valdivia •
Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology •
Lithic Analysis •
Landscape Archaeology •
Ceramic Analysis •
Craft Production •
Formative
Geographic Keywords
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Republic of Colombia (Country) •
Netherlands Antilles (Country) •
Aruba (Country) •
Republic of Ecuador (Country) •
South America (Continent) •
Department of Martinique (Country) •
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Department of Guadeloupe (Country) •
Antigua and Barbuda (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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Anarchy in the Trenches: Perspectives on Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In many ways, Buen Suceso is a unique archaeological site. Not only is it a multicomponent site, with evidence for occupation throughout almost the entirety of the ~2,200-year Valdivia sequence and specialized use by the much later Manteño culture, but it exhibits an occupational...
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Children at the Heart of Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Children in antiquity provide bioarchaeologists with a window into the past as they embody the environment and culture around them (Halcrow and Tayles 2011). Due to subadults’ sensitivity to biocultural factors, they are excellent indicators of the health and nutrition of a society...
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Drilling inside the Structure Atop the Mound: A Potential Lapidary Workshop at Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The lithic materials recovered from Buen Suceso are varied in use types and materials. This paper will focus on the collections of chipped stone drills excavated from the Unit 6 Structure at the site, located on top of a possible mound. The presence of concentrations of these drills in...
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Duendes, Fantasmas y Encantamientos: How Dos Mangas Connects to Archaeological Heritage through Folktales (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The lands of the Comuna Dos Mangas are replete with archaeological material, including the Buen Suceso Archaeological site. Over the Comuna’s history, generations of its residents have encountered thousands of artifacts from the Valdivia, Machalilla, Chorrera, Guangala, and Manteño...
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The Environment and Landscape at Buen Suceso, Ecuador (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Buen Suceso, a Formative period Valdivia site, is located in the Culebra-Colin (Manglaralto) valley of Ecuador’s coastal plain, on the lands of the contemporary comuna Dos Mangas, and flanked by the Chongón-Colonche Hills. The site is in a tropical rainforest ecoregion characterized by...
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Heritage Conversations with Dos Mangas (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in Dos Mangas began in 2006, and continued with excavation of a Valdivia village site, Buen Suceso, in 2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022. Those and subsequent excavations have combined archaeological inquiry with community engagement activities such as...
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Lived Experiences of Disease and Trauma among Manteño Burials from Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Skeletal measures of pathology and trauma can reveal lived experiences of individuals and broader patterns of health and disease within past communities. These are important lines of inquiry at both the individual and community level as they may reflect the identities held by those...
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Remembering Valdivia through a Unique Manteño Burial at Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burials have long been considered primary sources of information regarding social ranking and inequality, social understandings of ancestors, conceptions of death, diverse representations of identity and agency, and emotional expressions of mourning and loss (see Baitzel 2018; Buikstra...
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Ritual and Productive Activities in the Mound-Top Structure at Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Three seasons of excavation at Buen Suceso have identified a series of occupation floors in the area of the site referred to as Unit 6. This area is also the highest at the site, suggesting the existence of a mound or an augmented rise that was utilized during the Valdivia period. This...
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Social and Physical Landscape Changes at Buen Suceso (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Four seasons of excavation at the Valdivia site of Buen Suceso allow for a preliminary reconstruction of an occupational history of the site. Areas with likely ritual significance point to social changes at the site that demonstrate the unique nature of the Buen Suceso community. This...