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ARCHAEOLOGY TODAY
Anna S. Agbe-Davies
Thursday May 24, 2012 | 05:00 -07:00 PM | Stanford Archaeology Center

TITLE: Where Tradition and Pragmatism meet: an epistemological crossroads in African diaspora archaeology

ABSTRACT: If archaeologists take our subject at its broadest to be the exploration of human culture, the question that inevitably arises is where does this “culture” come from? How can we, analysts of relict material culture, understand the relative importance of social learning versus extant structures in shaping the behaviors of past actors? This classic conundrum has particularly bedeviled the practice of African diaspora archaeology. The author offers examples drawn from this domain of research that illustrate how archaeologists might use the strengths of our discipline to confront this challenge head on and produce new knowledge, positioning ourselves as a leading, rather than a lagging, field.

BIO: I am an historical archaeologist with research interests in the plantation societies of the colonial southeastern US and Caribbean, as well as towns and cities of the 19th and 20th century Midwest, with a particular focus on the African diaspora. I received my Ph.D. after completing a dissertation examining locally-made clay tobacco pipes from rural and urban sites in and around 17th-century Jamestown, Virginia. My current research projects include excavation and community collaboration at the sites of New Philadelphia, Illinois, and the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls on the south side of Chicago.