Decolonizing Indigenous Histories: Exploring Prehistoric/Colonial Transitions in Archaeology

Description

Decolonizing Indigenous Histories makes a vital contribution to the decolonization of archaeology by recasting colonialism within long-term indigenous histories. Showcasing case studies from Africa, Australia, Mesoamerica, and North and South America, this edited volume highlights the work of archaeologists who study indigenous peoples and histories at multiple scales. The contributors explore how the inclusion of indigenous histories, and collaboration with contemporary communities and scholars across the subfields of anthropology, can reframe archaeologies of colonialism. The cross-cultural case studies employ a broad range of methodological strategies—archaeology, ethnohistory, archival research, oral histories, and descendant perspectives—to better appreciate processes of colonialism. The authors argue that these more complicated histories of colonialism contribute not only to understandings of past contexts but also to contemporary social justice projects. In each chapter, authors move beyond an academic artifice of “prehistoric” and “colonial” and instead focus on longer sequences of indigenous histories to better understand colonial contexts. Throughout, each author explores and clarifies the complexities of indigenous daily practices that shape, and are shaped by, long-term indigenous and local histories by employing an array of theoretical tools, including theories of practice, agency, materiality, and temporality. Included are larger integrative chapters by Kent Lightfoot and Patricia Rubertone, foremost North American colonialism scholars who argue that an expanded global perspective is essential to understanding processes of indigenous-colonial interactions and transitions. Contents 1. Finding Transitions: Global Pathways to Decolonizing Indigenous Histories in Archaeology Part I. Beyond Dichotomies and Colonial Categories 2. The Rest Is History: Devaluing the Recent Past in the Archaeology of the Pueblo Southwest 3. The Discovery and Decolonization of Xaltocan, Mexico 4. Rock Art as Historical Sources in Colonial Contexts 5. Decolonizing through Heritage Work in the Pocumtuck Homeland of Northeastern North America Part II. Scales of Transitions 6. Between the Longue Durée and the Short Purée: Postcolonial Archaeologies of Indigenous History in Colonial North America 7. Lost in Tradition, Found in Transition: Scales of Indigenous History in Siin, Senegal 8. When Does History Begin? Material Continuity and Change in West Africa 9. Lost among the Colonial Maya: Engaging Indigenous Maya History at Progresso Lagoon, Belize 10. Andean Households in Transition: The Politics of Domestic Space at an Early Colonial Doctrina in the Peruvian Highlands 11. Hidden Transcripts, Contested Landscapes, and Long-Term Indigenous History in Oaxaca, Mexico Part III. Reflections: Found in Transitions 12. Archaeologies of Colonialism in Unexpected Times and Unexpected Places 13. Lost in Transition: A Retrospective About the Editors About the Contributors Index