Queerness and Blackness: Reimagining Bioarchaeological Paradigms

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Deviations: Archaeologies of Sexuality Beyond the Heteronormative", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Broadly, Black feminism is based on the notion that Black women and our knowledge matter. Our positionality, being Black and female within a patriarchal white supremacist society, subjects us to unique experiences that give us insight into the many forms that oppression can take. Sexuality emerges as a core theme in Black feminist theory, centering topics such as reproductive rights and sexual violence. Importantly, many pioneering Black feminists identified as queer and/or lesbian, emphasizing the deleterious effects of oppression rooted in heteronormativity and homophobia. Historically, Black women have been subject to oversexualization, degendering, and masculinization depending on the context. I consider other ways of interpreting the bioarchaeological record informed by Black feminism that center the experiences of Black women. If dominant archaeological interpretations of the past presume heterosexuality, marriage, and nuclear families, then by default the pathologization of Black women and families is inevitable.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• Deviations: Archaeologies of Sexuality Beyond the Heteronormative

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow