Chapter 6 “… and his wife Sally”: The Binford Legacy and Uncredited Work in Archaeology

Abstract

Often mentioned as an afterthought in sentences about her more (in)famous husband, Sally R. Binford has long been a focus of feminist archaeological discussion. She helped create the ‘New Archaeology’ and thus set the stage for an academic revolution, yet she has become one of the discipline's hidden figures, overshadowed by the lengthy career of Lewis Binford. Sally's own words allow us insight into the dynamic between the two Binfords; a case study on academic exploitation that may be more of a rule than of an exception. Rossiter's (1993) ‘Matthew/Matilda effect’—the paradigm whereby the work of influential scientific men can often be directly attributed to their unpublished or otherwise disenfranchised wives—is a useful analytical lens with which to expand discussions of ethics in citation, collaboration, and mentorship. How does archaeology as a discipline reconcile the legacy of unattributed fieldwork and research that has bolstered its growth? A review of publicly available documents on authorship and attribution reveals a lack of clear guidance on the subject. Institutional frameworks can ensure that students and faculty have these types of discussions early and often.