Good Medicine: Prescriptions for Indigenous Archaeological Practice

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While the history of North American archaeology points to a long engagement with tribal elders and scholars, these encounters largely consist of unequal, extractive relationships wherein indigenous collaborators and indigenous archaeologists have been treated more as objects of study and pity—what Bea Medicine refers to as "creatures"—rather than as equal research partners. As indigenous women, we reflect on the life journey and scholarship of Bea Medicine, whose work has provided generations of indigenous anthropologists with the means to participate in the discipline with their whole selves and, importantly, on their own terms. We argue that Medicine’s contributions—alongside indigenous archaeologies’ often overlooked grandmothers, mothers, and aunties—provide concrete strategies for continuing to decolonize the discipline and its broader relations and highlight continuing disparities in archaeological practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26334