TAG North America stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement
TAG deplores and condemns the ongoing police violence against Black people in the United States and elsewhere. We also recognize that discrimination and prejudice against those who identify as Black, Indigenous and Persons of Color continues to pervade society at every level, including in the practice of archaeology. Those of us who attend TAG meetings are committed to studying our own practices and to finding ways to address and change the status quo. In theorizing our practice we must continue to remind ourselves to critically address the lack of diversity and patterns of discrimination and preference in archaeology, including in our own field practices, teaching, research or writing.
Archaeology is a discipline that actively engages with communities outside of academia. As such we have obligations to put theory into practice and many opportunities to engage with the challenges and insights of the Black Lives Matter movement. Archaeologists have a lot to say about heritage, its exclusions and elisions, and its role in forgetting-remembering the past. We find ways to challenge existing narratives about the past, and to write new stories that pay attention to those who are often forgotten or deliberately erased from history. In this work we need a diversity of voices and perspectives to be effective; our histories can only be as representative as our discipline is.
In these efforts we find the following theorists helpful. These brief lists are radically incomplete, but we hope that they will act as a starting point for those who wish to learn more.
Byrd, Jodi A., 2011. The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism. University of Minnesota Press.
Césaire, Aimé, 2000. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Deloria, Philip Joseph, 1998. Playing Indian. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Fanon, Frantz, 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press
Hartman Saidiya V. 1997. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in 19th Century America. New York: Oxford University Press
Mbembe, Achille, 2017. Critique of Black Reason. Duke University Press.
McKittrick, Katherine, 2006. Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.
Said, Edward W., 1979. Orientalism. Vintage.
Spivak, Gayatri C., 2010 (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea, R. Morris (ed), New York: Columbia University Press. Pp.21-78.
Archaeology also has many scholars who have written critically on the failures of archaeology to engage with these issues, and on the possibilities it offers for more inclusive forms of history-telling. Here we recommend a tiny selection of key texts that relate specifically to the challenges highlighted by Black Lives Matter:
Battle-Baptiste, Whitney. 2017. Black Feminist Archaeology. Routledge.
Brunache, Peggy, 2019. Mainstreaming African diasporic foodways when academia is not enough. Transforming Anthropology, 27(2), pp.149-163.
Franklin, Maria, 1997. Why are there so few black American archaeologists? Antiquity, 71(274), pp.799-801.
Odewale, Alicia, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Flewellen, and Alexandra Jones. 2018. Archaeology for the Next Generation. Anthropology News 59(1): e210-e215.
Singleton, Theresa A. 1995. The archaeology of slavery in North America. Annual Review of Anthropology 24(1): 119-140.
LaRoche, Cheryl J. 2005. Heritage, Archaeology, and African American History. Society of American Archaeology Archaeological Record 5(2): 34-37.
LaRoche, Cheryl J., and Michael L. Blakey. 1997. Seizing intellectual power: the dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3): 84-106.
Finally, in this moment of Black Lives Matter we recommend the Society of Black Archaeologists as an important resource for those who wish to learn more about how archaeologists are currently theorizing African and African diaspora material culture, promoting community engagement and collaborations within the field, and raising and addressing concerns related to African peoples worldwide.
Addendum: Please check out this post on the topic of Archaeology and Black Lives Matter by Prof. William White at UC Berkeley
Archaeology is a discipline that actively engages with communities outside of academia. As such we have obligations to put theory into practice and many opportunities to engage with the challenges and insights of the Black Lives Matter movement. Archaeologists have a lot to say about heritage, its exclusions and elisions, and its role in forgetting-remembering the past. We find ways to challenge existing narratives about the past, and to write new stories that pay attention to those who are often forgotten or deliberately erased from history. In this work we need a diversity of voices and perspectives to be effective; our histories can only be as representative as our discipline is.
In these efforts we find the following theorists helpful. These brief lists are radically incomplete, but we hope that they will act as a starting point for those who wish to learn more.
Byrd, Jodi A., 2011. The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism. University of Minnesota Press.
Césaire, Aimé, 2000. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Deloria, Philip Joseph, 1998. Playing Indian. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Fanon, Frantz, 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press
Hartman Saidiya V. 1997. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in 19th Century America. New York: Oxford University Press
Mbembe, Achille, 2017. Critique of Black Reason. Duke University Press.
McKittrick, Katherine, 2006. Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.
Said, Edward W., 1979. Orientalism. Vintage.
Spivak, Gayatri C., 2010 (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea, R. Morris (ed), New York: Columbia University Press. Pp.21-78.
Archaeology also has many scholars who have written critically on the failures of archaeology to engage with these issues, and on the possibilities it offers for more inclusive forms of history-telling. Here we recommend a tiny selection of key texts that relate specifically to the challenges highlighted by Black Lives Matter:
Battle-Baptiste, Whitney. 2017. Black Feminist Archaeology. Routledge.
Brunache, Peggy, 2019. Mainstreaming African diasporic foodways when academia is not enough. Transforming Anthropology, 27(2), pp.149-163.
Franklin, Maria, 1997. Why are there so few black American archaeologists? Antiquity, 71(274), pp.799-801.
Odewale, Alicia, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Flewellen, and Alexandra Jones. 2018. Archaeology for the Next Generation. Anthropology News 59(1): e210-e215.
Singleton, Theresa A. 1995. The archaeology of slavery in North America. Annual Review of Anthropology 24(1): 119-140.
LaRoche, Cheryl J. 2005. Heritage, Archaeology, and African American History. Society of American Archaeology Archaeological Record 5(2): 34-37.
LaRoche, Cheryl J., and Michael L. Blakey. 1997. Seizing intellectual power: the dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3): 84-106.
Finally, in this moment of Black Lives Matter we recommend the Society of Black Archaeologists as an important resource for those who wish to learn more about how archaeologists are currently theorizing African and African diaspora material culture, promoting community engagement and collaborations within the field, and raising and addressing concerns related to African peoples worldwide.
Addendum: Please check out this post on the topic of Archaeology and Black Lives Matter by Prof. William White at UC Berkeley
