Researching an African American Founder With the Help of One of Historical Archaeology’s Founders

Summary

This Robert Schuyler-dedicated Symposium paper considers three of Schuyler’s contributions to the field—his reflections on historical archaeology’s potential for the study of American national identity as a cultural and evolving process (1971, 1976), his call for an awareness of the importance of cultural context in archaeology research (1973), and his writing about the importance of conducting historical ethnography (1988). These foundational ideas shaping historical archaeology practice are then examined in a recent public archaeology project that is helping to interpret African American archaeology in Independence National Historical Park. The project engages African American college students in crafting archaeology-based history narratives useful for navigating a 3D, immersive, virtual landscape based in the Oculous Rift platform. This ‘user-centered’ navigation of the archaeological findings should better reveal the social role and life experiences of free African Americans in the earliest days of the country.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Historical Archaeologies of the Modern World:Celebrating the Career of Robert Schuyler

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 710