Applying Slow Science and the Ethics of Community Engagement: An Eastern Woodland case study of indigenous incorporation with the acquisition of archaeological knowledge

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Communities of Engagement: Incorporating Deep Time and Slow Science into Community Based Research Projects" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This presentation explores the implementation of the ‘slow science’ method, termed to incorporate meaningful indigenous community involvement into archaeological research. Recent initiatives involving descendant indigenous communities through land acknowledgement and explanatory descriptions of research topics do little to advance the interests of the communities involved, of which the use of affiliated material culture and the direct involvement of tribal time and resources, the research would not be possible. Slow science methods are meant to remedy one-way beneficial research cooperations by including all affiliated parties during every phase of research. This case study will highlight the incorporation of Cherokee and Haudenosaunee Nation staff and recognized potters into the study of Early and Middle Woodland ceramic analysis, which benefits the research project by valued interpretations and added meaning to ceramic components. Reciprocally, the development of cultural phylogenetics as a method measuring ceramic attributes, which adds to our understanding of how communities of practice form, is thus developed in a repeatable format useful to all involved participants. Through the mutual acquisition and use of archaeological knowledge and affiliated community input, the slow science strategy can finally begin to answer the question posed by our indigenous colleagues, “what can this project do for us?”

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Communities of Engagement: Incorporating Deep Time and Slow Science into Community Based Research Projects

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53261