Dismantling Inequities of Disaster: A Speculative Archaeology Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

When severe weather events strike, disaster ensues, leaving a catastrophic and at times an apocalyptic wake. This wake ripples through populations differently, generally preying on those already on the margins prior to the event and amplifying the structural inequities, whether they are economic, social, political, or physical. These events hit deeper and last longer. Most large-scale response and recovery efforts focus on getting “back to normal,” but “back to normal” for those at the margins generally means slipping further in this direction as existing inequalities are exacerbated by the effects of disaster. How can archaeology and heritage work inspire us to seek something beyond the normal that can build a better future for these marginalized communities? Building on my work from various sectors of the field, I turn to what I feel is archaeology’s greatest gift: storytelling. Using the speculative as informed by ethnography, heritage, and speculative fiction, how can we incorporate this mode of analysis and evidence-based conjecture to embody a present and imagine a future that dismantles these structural inequities?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37999.0