Abundance/Absence: Reframing Agency in African Diaspora Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Black Studies and Archaeology" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In her 1997 book Scenes of Subjection, writer Saidiya Hartman examined the possibilities for resistance and transformation manifest in Black performance and everyday practice both pre and post-emancipation. Her examination is couched in a deep skepticism of the usefulness and relevance of agency in the study of slave power, questioning what shape agency might possibly take in a place where repression is limitless (1997:6,63). Hartman’s thesis and exploration present a critical frame for African Diaspora archaeology, which has often struggled with appropriately (and adequately) interpreting the actions, decisions, and practices of African descendent peoples, particularly within enslavement. In this paper, I focus in particular on the ways which Hartman’s approach to agency is instructive in the study of anti-slavery resistance at two Florida plantation sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Black Studies and Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology