Subtle Ground: The Material Memories of a Contemporary Oaxacan Pueblo

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Gateways to Future Historical Archaeology in Mexico and Central America", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Obsidian prismatic blades are routine ‘prehistoric period’ finds. While not prevalent, blade fragments and flakes nonetheless form part of the material memory of Amapa— a contemporary Oaxacan pueblo that was also, in another past present, a pueblo de cimarrones. Obsidian blades are only one object from Amapa’s patchy and brittle archaeological record that often consolidates time, fogging distinctions between material histories into forty-five centimeters of dirt. This paper considers Amapa’s archaeological present as a gateway where temporalities and histories meet—blurring before, during, and after. If ‘each epoch dreams the one that follows’ according to Michelet via Benjamin, what kind of (archaeological) future can we picture by dreaming with the objects that soil/archaeological strata variedly bring together— like Amapa’s plastic, unglazed ceramic sherds, and obsidian tools?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Gateways to Future Historical Archaeology in Mexico and Central America

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow