Unearthing Black Ecologies in Lenapehoking

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Marginalization and Resilience in the Northeast", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This work excavates the ecological and land-based strategies of Black communities during the 19th century amidst the layered contexts of recent emancipation from enslavement and the ongoing violence of racial capitalism. Archaeofaunal remains from the Dunkerhook community, in what is today called Paramus, New Jersey, are analyzed to craft an understanding of the community’s ecological practices, knowledges, and foodways relevant to their subsistence, resilience, and wellbeing. Using the frameworks of Black Ecologies, I advocate for a view of Black land relations as multispecies relations in contrast to, yet contiguous to and complicated by the prevailing conditions of domination. Finally, I ask: is Black liberation possible outside of kinship to land?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeology of Marginalization and Resilience in the Northeast

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow