The Blurred Line between Insider/Outsider Positionalities

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There has been a serious reckoning with problematic histories in our discipline, which have involved extractive research—outsiders’ removal of objects and knowledge from local communities. Increasingly, researchers are attempting to address the harms perpetuated by these histories by better serving communities. Often, however, insider/outsider positionality is not so binary. It can be challenging to ethically determine whose perspectives to champion and to come to terms with the ways our own unique positions along the insider/outsider spectrum impact research goals. In this paper, four early-career archaeologists critically consider their multidimensional positionalities. The first studies the material legacies of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and reflects on her relationship to the topic as the daughter of a resident physicist. The second, an India born researcher, negotiates her class positionality in the study of material culture associated with Bengali identity in various socioeconomic and international contexts. The third seeks to promote inclusive heritage interpretations of the legacies of Japanese colonial rule in twentieth-century East Asia. The fourth, a pro-immigrant researcher from the global north, studies refugee resettlement in the global south. Their examples demonstrate the complexity of outsider/insider positionalities and speak to the limitations of relying on “serve-the-insiders” approaches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39005.0