{"title":"Working with huacos: Archaeological ceramics and relationships among worlds in the Peruvian North Coast","authors":"Débora L Soares","doi":"10.1177/14696053211028062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14696053211028062","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes a multitemporal approach to the study of archaeological ceramics in the Peruvian North Coast through archaeological ethnography. It allows us to create a new perspective of a past that seems to be continuously brought back in the ritual practices of curanderos (shamans), and in the daily life of other subjects that interact with what archaeologists call archaeological artifacts. In the rituals of curanderos and in the practice of huaqueo, where archaeological ceramics are known as huacos, it is possible to see how these vessels come to life, performing within a complex meshwork of relationships which extend over different worlds, as well as human and other-than-human participation. This discussion provokes the reevaluation of the relationships among archaeological heritage, archaeological material, and archaeological practice itself. It also shows how past and present are related in this specific Andean context.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/14696053211028062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44525435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Esparto crafting under empire: Local technology and imperial industry in Roman Iberia","authors":"Linda R. Gosner","doi":"10.1177/14696053211016628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14696053211016628","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on scholarship in postcolonial archaeology that emphasizes the place of indigenous technology in colonial and imperial contexts, this article explores the role of local communities in esparto grass weaving and basketry in the southeast Iberian Peninsula in antiquity. Esparto crafting became essential to Phoenician and Carthaginian colonial economies of the 1st millennium BCE and, later, to the production equipment for mining and other industries under Roman imperial rule. This paper uses ethnographic studies alongside archaeological evidence of esparto objects, particularly esparto mining equipment, to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire of ancient esparto crafting. It argues that local communities developed landscape learning and tactile technical knowledge surrounding esparto crafting over many generations. In supplying equipment essential to Roman mining, these communities used their technical knowledge to maintain agency and construct their identities under imperial rule. Ultimately, understanding esparto crafting helps elucidate the relationship between resources, technology, and imperial or colonial encounters.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/14696053211016628","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44285665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oral tradition as emplacement: Ancestral Blackfoot memories of the Rocky Mountain Front","authors":"M. Zedeño, Evelyn Pickering, François B. Lanoë","doi":"10.1177/14696053211019837","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14696053211019837","url":null,"abstract":"We highlight the significance of process, event, and context of human practice in Indigenous Creation traditions to integrate Blackfoot “Napi” origin stories with environmental, geological, and archaeological information pertaining to the peopling of the Northwestern Plains, where the northern Rocky Mountain Front may have played a prominent role. First, we discuss the potential and limitations of origin stories generally, and Napi stories specifically, for complementing the fragmentary records of early human presence in the Blackfoot homeland. Second, we demonstrate the intimate connection among processes, events, place-making practices, and stories. Last, we aim to expand multivocality in the interpretation of the deep past through an archaeological practice that considers Indigenous philosophies and stories to be as valid as non-Indigenous ones.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/14696053211019837","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48014917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Haplotypes and textual types: Interdisciplinary approaches to Viking Age migration and mobility","authors":"J. Jesch","doi":"10.1177/1469605321996501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321996501","url":null,"abstract":"When geneticists became interested in Viking Age migration and mobility, about 20 years ago, their evidence was drawn from the DNA of modern populations. More recently, ancient DNA (aDNA) techniques have been refined to the extent that evidence from archaeological skeletons is now being brought into the discussions. While modern DNA can provide large datasets, it remains a question how well these represent populations of over a thousand years ago. On the other hand, aDNA is indeed ancient, but the datasets are small and therefore also not necessarily representative. The historical and literary texts about Viking Age migration and mobility also suffer from doubts about how representative they are. This common characteristic of texts and genetics indicates that an interdisciplinary approach would be fruitful. This paper will explore intersections between ancient texts and aDNA to suggest some ways forward.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321996501","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42834334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nation branding in Zimbabwe: Archaeological heritage, national cohesion, and corporate identities","authors":"T. Thondhlana, S. S. Chitima, S. Chirikure","doi":"10.1177/14696053211002699","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14696053211002699","url":null,"abstract":"This article critically assesses how heritage has been appropriated in various contexts to create national, partisan, and corporate identities in Zimbabwe. Using iconography, we attempt to establish how various players have created visual identities based on iconic archaeological artefacts and places. We discern that archaeological evidence has played a vital role in the invention and re-invention of national identity and patriotic iconography. Archaeological evidence has influenced the branding of corporate bodies, including universities, which are the major focus of this paper. Visual manifestations of the ancient Zimbabwe Culture (madzimbahwe), especially Great Zimbabwe, dominate the branding process. The Zimbabwe bird, Conical Tower, and motifs associated with the drystone built heritage form the key visual elements in the country’s branding enterprise. We advance the argument that the period associated with madzimbahwe has been projected as the only ‘Golden Age’ of ancient Zimbabwe. Consequently, other heritages, diverse histories, and past cultural achievements have been marginalised.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/14696053211002699","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44131010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Liberating genealogies in Amman: Urban histories between a colonizing legacy and a decolonizing illusion","authors":"R. Rabady, Shatha Abu-Khafajah","doi":"10.1177/1469605321999219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321999219","url":null,"abstract":"Colonialism operated in Amman through a matrix of power generated from a Western emphasis on its biblical and classical pasts. The cultural dominance of this matrix persisted in the postcolonial period. It perpetuated the coloniality of knowledge and the coloniality of being as it accentuated Western imperial pasts and marked the local – whether heritage or something else – as marginal. Coloniality is reflected in the successive planning and regeneration projects of Amman’s place of origin: Amman Valley (Wadi Amman). A postcolonial approach is usually used to discuss these projects on the basis of locals’ “otherness” and passivity. However, we shift the discussion toward examining local intelligence as having the power to resist the persistent colonial matrix, using the example of an art initiative by local activists in Wadi Amman as part of its regeneration. Using the concept of decoloniality, this article grapples with local knowledge and being in Wadi Amman and their capacity to turn urban heritage spaces into places of resistance. It reveals that despite the resistance potential in urban heritage spaces, the persistent colonial matrix of power reduces them to spaces of illusion. Because of the cultural dominance of the art initiative in Wadi Amman and the marginalization of locality, we conclude that resistance itself is being colonized and decoloniality is but an illusion. In line with decolonial theory, we call for a geopolitical turn that allows us to unfold the different shapes of struggle in the urban heritage spaces of postcolonial cities in order to locate, celebrate, and criticize the liberating genealogies found in them.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321999219","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45692231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. D. Cortez, Deborah A. Bolnick, G. Nicholas, J. Bardill, C. Colwell
{"title":"An ethical crisis in ancient DNA research: Insights from the Chaco Canyon controversy as a case study","authors":"A. D. Cortez, Deborah A. Bolnick, G. Nicholas, J. Bardill, C. Colwell","doi":"10.1177/1469605321991600","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321991600","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the field of paleogenomics has grown into an exciting and rapidly advancing area of scientific inquiry. However, scientific work in this field has far outpaced the discipline’s dialogue about research ethics. In particular, Indigenous peoples have argued that the paleogenomics revolution has produced a “vampire science” that perpetuates biocolonialist traditions of extracting Indigenous bodies and heritage without the consent of, or benefits to, the communities who are most affected by this research. In this article, we explore these ethical issues through the case study of a project that sequenced the ancient DNA (aDNA) of nine Ancestral Puebloan people from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. By providing a “thick description” of this controversy, we are able to analyze its metanarratives, periodization, path dependency, and historical contingencies. We conclude that the paleogenomics revolution needs to include an ethical revolution that remakes the field’s values, relationships, forms of accountability, and practices.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321991600","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48763234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conceptualizing histories of multispecies entanglements: Ancient pathogen genomics and the case of Borrelia recurrentis","authors":"Venla Oikkonen","doi":"10.1177/1469605321993942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321993942","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the conceptual and cultural implications of using pathogen ancient DNA (aDNA) collected in archaeological contexts to understand the past. More specifically, it examines ancient pathogen genomics as a way of conceptualizing multispecies entanglements. The analysis focuses on the 2018 sequencing of Borrelia recurrentis bacteria retrieved from a medieval graveyard in Oslo, Norway. B. recurrentis is associated with louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF), known to have killed several million people in Europe during the past millennium, and it is still encountered in parts of East Africa. The article demonstrates that while aDNA research often foregrounds multispecies entanglements, its epistemic tools cannot easily address the ontological blurriness of pathogens and their embeddedness in vibrant material processes. The article draws on feminist posthumanities work on microbes and materiality to highlight conceptual openings that a theorization of ancient pathogens could engender.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321993942","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44618417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accurate depiction of uncertainty in ancient DNA research: The case of Neandertal ancestry in Africa","authors":"J. Hawks","doi":"10.1177/1469605321995616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321995616","url":null,"abstract":"All approaches to understanding the past must work with limited data. Like many other kinds of evidence of past peoples, the relation between ancient DNA and past events is intermediated by complex models that bear many assumptions, some untested or untestable. Statements about the past from this evidence are thus accompanied by uncertainty, some quantified and some unquantifiable. Accurate communication of this uncertainty is essential to effective cross-disciplinary collaboration and public understanding. Here I examine one well-studied case of ancient DNA inference: the inference of Neandertal ancestry for today’s African peoples. In this case study, scientific predictions about Neandertal introgression and the genetic variation of all living people both gave consistent predictions before the sequencing of Neandertal DNA. Still, at the time that a draft Neandertal genome was published, a myth became established among the public that today’s Africans are different from all other living humans in that they lack Neandertal ancestors. This contribution reviews public statements, press releases, and press accounts to understand the origin of this story and why it became widespread. I review the ultimate impact of this story and the path toward correcting it. In light of this example, I provide some guidelines on how to recognize accurate depiction of uncertainty and examples of how effective engagement with content experts in archaeology and biological anthropology can lead to stronger and more easily communicated scientific outcomes.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321995616","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49347031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Källén, C. Mulcare, Andreas Nyblom, Daniel Strand
{"title":"Introduction: Transcending the aDNA revolution","authors":"Anna Källén, C. Mulcare, Andreas Nyblom, Daniel Strand","doi":"10.1177/1469605321996119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321996119","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321996119","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43851534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}