Bone Gut Heart Stone

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Far-Reaching Influence of Steven L. Kuhn" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

When hired into the Oberlin College Department of Anthropology in 2008 I learned I was also de facto steward of two thousand cultural objects that were warehoused in a pair of campus custodial closets. The antiquated collection, with its objects hailing from around the world and uneven documentation, represented an intellectual conundrum and a professional liability: “getting involved could derail your tenure case,” cautioned one dean. I ignored the dean’s warning, and half a career later gratefully reflect on my graduate advisor Steve Kuhn’s influence on my approach to studying and stewarding this important material culture collection. I will show how items like an Alaska Native seal gut bag and a suit of coconut fiber armor from the drowning island nation of Kiribati serve as material nodes that connect diverse stakeholders. Close analysis of these technologies, drawing on multiple forms of expertise, informs on the past by revealing the deep ecological knowledge held by their original makers and users. This work is equally forward-looking as once-dormant objects become touchstones for Indigenous cultural revitalization efforts in our current era of ecological precarity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Far-Reaching Influence of Steven L. Kuhn

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50227