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THEORY IN COLLABORATIVE INDIGENOUS ARCHAEOLOGY: INSIGHTS FROM MOHEGAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2018

Craig N. Cipolla ,
James Quinn  and
Jay Levy
Craig N. Cipolla*
Affiliation:
Department of Art and Culture, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C6
James Quinn
Affiliation:
Mohegan Tribal Historic Preservation Office and Archaeology Department, 13 Crow Hill Road, Uncasville, CT 06382,USA
Jay Levy
Affiliation:
Mohegan Tribal Historic Preservation Office and Archaeology Department, 13 Crow Hill Road, Uncasville, CT 06382,USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
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Abstract

There is little doubt that Indigenous, collaborative, and community-based archaeologies offer productive means of reshaping the ways in which archaeologists conduct research in North America. Scholarly reporting, however, typically places less emphasis on the ways in which Indigenous and collaborative versions of archaeology influence our interpretations of the past and penetrate archaeology at the level of theory. In this article, we begin to fill this void, critically considering archaeological research and teaching at Mohegan in terms of the deeper impacts that Indigenous knowledge, interests, and sensitivities make via collaborative projects. We frame the collaboration as greater than the sum of its heterogeneous components, including its diverse human participants. From this perspective, the project produces new and valuable orientations toward current theoretical debates in archaeology. We address these themes as they relate to ongoing research and teaching at several eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sites on the Mohegan Reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Il ne fait aucun doute que l'archéologie des nations amérindiennes, l'archéologie collaborative et l'archéologie communautaire offrent une variété de démarches pour refaçonner la façon dont les archéologues nord-américains effectuent leur recherche. Toutefois, les publications mettent en général moins l'accent sur la façon dont les archéologies communautaire et amérindienne influencent l'interprétation du passé au niveau théorique. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à combler cette lacune en examinant de façon critique la recherche et l'enseignement effectués chez les Mohegan, surtout en ce qui a trait aux impacts profonds qu'apporte une approche collaborative sur la pratique archéologique en mettant en valeur les connaissances, les préoccupations et les sensibilités des nations amérindiennes. Nous envisageons la collaboration comme étant plus grande que la somme de ses composantes hétérogènes, y compris les participants humains. De ce point de vue, ce projet propose de nouvelles directions pour les débats théoriques en archéologie. Nous illustrons ces thèmes à travers la recherche et l'enseignement effectués sur plusieurs sites des XVIIIe et XIVe siècles situés sur la Réserve Mohegan à Uncasville, Connecticut.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 127 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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