Parenting in the Past: Investigations into the Spaces, Places, and Traces of Parenting in the Archaeological Record

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper seeks to bring together the existing literature and extend its theoretical and methodological implications for an archaeology of parenting, particularly in the times/places where contemporary written records do not exist. While parenting and childhood may be more readily visible to researchers and the public in periods where written records specifically make note of such relationships and behaviors, there is no question that “parenting” has existed as long as there have been human societies. Thus, our paper seeks to develop theoretical models for seeing and understanding the “spaces, places, and traces” of parenting in the deep past. We will utilize a comparative approach drawing on our expertise in two heavily researched regions, Mesoamerica and Polynesia. Along the way we seek to challenge the heteronormative and biologically determinative models of what constitutes a “parent” and identify how archaeologists bring to focus the essential work of parents in the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36355.0