Decolonizing Archaeology

What does it mean to say that archaeology is a colonial discipline? Anthropology and archaeology are rooted historically in projects of domination and extermination by colonial powers. Today many scholars, practitioners, and colonized peoples are exploring ways to recast the archaeological project--to de-colonize it. There are many approaches to such attempts and this course will explore three of them: Indigenous archaeology, community-based participatory research, and activist archaeology. There are no recipes to produce de-colonized archaeology and no clear answers to the questions that arise in the process. As a class we will explore possibilities and chart futures for a practice of archaeology that breaks from divides between researcher and subject, past and present, and scholarship and social justice. From this course you will gain an understanding of foundational critiques of archaeology from inside and outside the discipline and from Indigenous, Black, and people of color who have historically been the subject of archaeology's colonial practices. You will also gain an understanding of attempts to move beyond colonial frameworks and your own position within them through a series of archaeological case studies. You will not leave this course with answers, but you will leave this course with a deeper understanding of the ongoing project of decolonization.