Feeling Queer(ed)

Summary

Is sensory archaeology queer archaeology?

This paper uses examples from the historic archaeology of confinement and enculturation to explore the potential of a sensory approach as a queer methodology. The primacy of vision has been challenged by both sensory archaeologists and queer theorists, and both acknowledge a multiplicity and fluidity of the senses. Envisioning a multi-sensorial subject allows archaeologists to approach the queerness of individual and group experience outside the confines of monolithic identities. While a theory of the senses relies on notions of the "habitual," this engagement does not deny the coexistence of unique momentary experience and repeated performance. Focusing on soundscapes of confinement and relocation, this paper unpacks the inherent queerness of archaeoacoustics specifically and a sensory approach generally in historic contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Queering Historical Archaeology: Methods, Theory, and Practice

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 392