"Old" Collections, New Narrative: Rethinking the Native Past through Archaeological Collections from Eastern Long Island.

Author(s): Allison J.M. McGovern

Year: 2016

Summary

This paper highlights the value of existing museum and contract archaeology collections to new directions in archaeological research. Renewed attention to "old" data sets serves to decolonize archaeology and to challenge existing narratives with new questions. The collections discussed in this paper all come from eastern Long Island, New York. I draw attention to how narratives of Native American cultural loss and disappearance are constructed locally through archaeological heritage, and I present a new narrative of Native survivance based on the results of contract archaeology in the region. This work is influenced by Diana Wall’s encouragement, as well as her interests in colonialism, race, class-formation, and archaeological heritage.

Cite this Record

"Old" Collections, New Narrative: Rethinking the Native Past through Archaeological Collections from Eastern Long Island.. Allison J.M. McGovern. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434542)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 668