Independent Women: A Story of Gender and Agency in the Colorado Rockies

Summary

Artifacts can tell us stories, as long as we recognize that those stories include a reflection of us, the archaeologists, within those interpretations. This project comprises a theoretical approach to addressing these issues of reflexivity within archaeology as a practice. In particular, reflexivity is explored with regard to negotiations of feminine gender identity and how the agency of an unmarried, Victorian-era female homesteader parallels the agency of a female archaeologist studying her life. This is a story about how two unique histories (or her-stories, in this case), one past and one present, intersect. The use of digital storytelling, embodied by a short film illustrating the realities and nature of archaeological reflexivity, further enhances this application and exploration of reflexivity as archaeological practice.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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