Cultural Resource Management, Archaeological Collections, and Ethical Issues Associated with Representations of Indigenous Time, Space, Materiality, and Historicity

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Refining Archaeological Data Collection and Management to Achieve Greater Scientific, Traditional, and Educational Values" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A dominant view in cultural resource management is that the archaeological record and its material culture have much to offer in the creation of scientific data, elucidating the past, and contributing to cross-disciplinary scientific studies. This dominant view is indelibly grounded in the ontology and epistemology of Western science, which gives little consideration of how this perspective negatively impacts Indigenous communities. Indigenous community members view themselves as more than the descendants of past people who lived in their homeland landscapes. The material culture found in these places is their inheritance, and descendant communities possess stewardship obligations to their ancestors. Employing our experience with the Zuni and Acoma people, this paper explores the multiple ways that dominant forms of archaeological data collection and management hegemonize Native Americans’ notions of time, space, and materiality. The process of compiling and managing archaeological collections unintentionally perpetuates colonial violence on Indigenous communities and individuals through the theft of cultural materials that belong to the ancestors. These actions effectively erase Native Americans’ connections to the landscape. The archaeological, cultural resource management, and curation communities have ethical responsibilities to descendant community members because they are not just representatives of sovereign nations, they are also fellow Americans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Refining Archaeological Data Collection and Management to Achieve Greater Scientific, Traditional, and Educational Values

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32827