The Archaeology of Care and Power

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Archaeology of Care and Power" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The care concept in archaeology is often used to identify life-sustaining practices and behaviors in the past. However, practices of care are not necessarily always benevolent and inclusionary. By introducing the analytical framework “Ecologies of Support,” anthropologists Vincent Duclos and Tomás Sánchez Criado provide a pathway to “trouble” the use of the care concept, and urge scholars to treat care “as is” without being burdened by the moral and ethical standards often associated with the concept. This seminar invites archaeologists to look at practitioners, structures, and sites of care as convoluted systems entrenched in power dynamics. Beyond just identifying care practices in the past, this session aims to ask: Who had access to care, and who did not? How did care include and exclude certain groups of people? And lastly, how was care entangled in economic processes, power structures, and both the natural and built environment? By mapping out the often-discontinuous distribution of care, archaeologists can get at how care was instituted across the landscape, and the material conditions that enabled care in the past.