From Making to Mobilizing History in Banda: Learning from Ann Stahl’s Place-Based Approach to Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Crafting Archaeological Practice in Africa and Beyond: Celebrating the Contributions of Ann B. Stahl to Global Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ann Stahl’s career spans over 40 years, and for most of that time, she has focused on working in one small place in central Ghana known as Banda. Banda is different than most regions where archaeologists usually conduct sustained, long-term fieldwork: it was not a large, well-known urban site or the center of a large polity, but a place that has long been a peripheral frontier. In this paper, I reflect on how this context and Ann’s commitment to place-based work has anchored her trajectory as a scholar and a mentor. Revisiting this place-based work showcases how engaged, community-based archaeology can be enacted across a wide range of contexts, but also how community work acts to change the questions of archaeology as a discipline. I also detail how many of her scholarly habits (interdisciplinarity, theoretical agility, empiricism, and openness to learning) provide a set of aspirational practices for archaeologists today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Crafting Archaeological Practice in Africa and Beyond: Celebrating the Contributions of Ann B. Stahl to Global Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40229.0