Weaving Kin Studies and Multispecies Frameworks into Collaborative Paleoethnobotanical Research

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last 20 years practitioners, activists, and scholars across disciplines have repeatedly pointed out the importance of incorporating other-than-human kin, relationality and reciprocity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into scientific practice when working with Indigenous peoples. These works urge us to embrace the unique connections between Indigenous and Western scientific approaches to understanding and explaining a world in which human and agential other-than-human beings are inextricably related. Similarly, multispecies studies advocate for a more-than-human approach to the interconnectedness and inseparability of humans and other life forms. Paleoethnobotany, which seeks to explore the relationships between past people and plants, is remarkably well-suited to contribute to these conversations. In this paper I explore similarities and differences across North American Indigenous onto-epistemologies and multispecies frameworks, echoing Indigenous scholars who have long shared their relational and agential histories and philosophies. I argue that by working between and weaving these frameworks, paleoethnobotanists may be better positioned to envision new questions, establish meaningful collaborations with descendant communities, and generate new insights into the past. I highlight several North American case studies wherein such an approach has the potential to reorient archaeological inquiry, praxis, and interpretation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36858.0