Archaeology, Activism, and Protest
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2024
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest," at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Archaeology has always been shaped by the time period in which it is taking place. Social movements of the 1960s spurred on post-processual, critical, and reflexive approaches. Some activists spoke out against archaeology at places like Indigenous burial grounds in Minnesota and the African Burial Ground in New York. Other activists called for more archaeology at places like Independence Mall in Pennsylvania. As the field diversified, archaeology changed from the inside and out. Forms of activist archaeology, practiced with respect for and often solidarity with activists, began to take hold. When archaeologists become involved in the agendas of activists, whatever lines might have existed between them can dissolve: the archaeologists can become activists and vice versa. Some scholars fear that archaeology should not be political while others argue that it has always been political. This session explores recent work on archaeology, activism, and protest.
Other Keywords
activism •
contemporary •
Protest •
Power •
Oil •
Preservation •
Race •
Landscape Archaeology •
Japanese Internment •
industrial
Geographic Keywords
Mid-Atlantic •
Minnesota •
PORTUGAL •
United States of America •
Northeast United States •
Southeastern U.S. •
Urban Northeast US •
West Coast (California) •
Western USA
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)
- Documents (12)
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Activist Archaeology and Participatory Action Research (PAR): Praxis in Action (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper focuses on the ways that archaeological praxis shifts when we embrace the political nature of all archaeology. Participatory Action Research (PAR) provides a method for archaeologists to work as both archaeologists and activists with communities, connecting the past to current injustices. This better allows their work to be...
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Archaeology of Activism (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Micah White, one of the organizers of the 2011-2012 Occupy Movement, and its associated protests, emerged from Occupy so disillusioned that he published a book titled The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution. In it, White argues that activists tend to overestimate the effects of protest in the short term and underestimate them in...
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By Whose Authority? A Settler Archaeologist’s Approach to Relinquishing Control in Indigenous and Collaborative Archaeologies. (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Research that purposefully redistributes authority can have more ethical and innovative results than standard hierarchical research models. This paper summarizes the results of projects “with, by, and for” (sensu Atalay 2012) Native American communities who had more authority in decision making than standard projects typically do. First, the...
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Cataloguing the Material Culture of Police Violence in Portland, Oregon (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this paper I will discuss the artifacts, digital data, and community relationships accumulated over three years of documenting police violence against protestors in my local community. Over the course of this project I have become expert at identifying chemical weapons parts, have learned to safely store explosive objects outside of...
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Excavating, Preserving, and Interpreting a Town Rooted in Activism: The North Brentwood Digital Archaeology and Heritage Project (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The activist roots of North Brentwood, Maryland, were planted by its founders. The Randall Family purchased the first lot in 1891 to dodge the racial housing covenants that were spreading through neighboring developments. Decades later, North Brentwood became the first incorporated Black town in Washington D.C.’s metropolitan area, and the...
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From Collaborative Archaeology to Collaborative Activism at a WWII Japanese Internment Center (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2022 the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark, a WWII Japanese American incarceration center, became part of the National Park Service. This transfer was the result of generations of activism from community organizations, survivors and descendants, and 15 years of collaborative archaeological research. To facilitate the...
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"Hands-on History" at the John Brown Farm: Collaborating on Behalf of Racial Justice in an Era of Teacher Censorship (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Hundreds of state and local laws and resolutions have been adopted recently to restrict how teachers teach the history of race in America. As a result, today’s teachers face undue scrutiny, critique, and punishment for how they approach Black history. It is in this volatile climate that John Brown Lives!, a human rights organization centered...
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In Response to Police Brutality, a Museum Exhibit as a Community Resource (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Oakland Museum of California’s “Power to the People'' exhibit celebrates the Black Panther Party (BPP) and its influence on contemporary social movements, such as Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC) and Autopsy Initiative, which pays for autopsies in suspected cases of police brutality. This form of mass murder of African...
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Searching the Past, but Finding Our Own Times: Germanna Archaeology Finding Its Way to Activism? (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Germanna, as a set of sites in Orange County, Virginia, has seen archaeology since the late 1960s. The goals have changed over time. Interest in the site of Alexander Spotswood’s 1720 home (which came to be known as “the Enchanted Caste”) prompted initial archaeological research. Over the course of 50 years, approaches to the site have...
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Struggle, Perseverance, and Protest at Jamestown: A Black Community in the Pee Dee Region of SC. (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1870, former captive Ervin James (1815-1872) purchased one hundred and five acres from two white landowners to establish his family farm. By 1891, his sons had bought an additional 140 acres where they grew crops, raised livestock, and hunted wildlife in the swamp. At the community’s peak in the 1920s, over 250 people called Jamestown...
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Tensions, Engagements, and Activisms Along The Pipeline Route:Tracing Resistance To Line 93 in Northern Minnesota (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Enbridge crude oil pipelines have been operational on Anishinaabe treaty lands in northern Minnesota for over 70 years, carrying oil from the Alberta tar sands to the Superior Terminal, Wisconsin. It was not until the replacement of Line 3 with the Line 93 pipeline in 2015 that large-scale social unrest was sparked. Indigenous and...
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The Weaker Sex? An Archaeology For Gender Empowerment In 20th Century Portugal (2024)
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This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Gender equality is an objective that has yet to be achieved on a larger scale. Women have always been and are still part of the industrial workforce, nonetheless, they often keep being ignored and marginalized by archaeological research as part of a productive system that enhanced their social subalternization. In general, industrial...