Pub Date : 2021-06-07DOI: 10.1177/14696053211019837
M. Zedeño, Evelyn Pickering, François B. Lanoë
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"306 - 328"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-03-28DOI: 10.1177/1469605321996501
J. Jesch
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"216 - 235"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1177/14696053211002699
T. Thondhlana, S. S. Chitima, S. Chirikure
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"283 - 305"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-03-08DOI: 10.1177/1469605321999219
R. Rabady, Shatha Abu-Khafajah
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"259 - 282"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-03-03DOI: 10.1177/1469605321991600
A. D. Cortez, Deborah A. Bolnick, G. Nicholas, J. Bardill, C. Colwell
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"157 - 178"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-02-24DOI: 10.1177/1469605321993942
Venla Oikkonen
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"197 - 215"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-02-24DOI: 10.1177/1469605321995616
J. Hawks
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.
{"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":"21 1","pages":"179 - 196"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-02-20DOI: 10.1177/1469605321996119
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":"21 1","pages":"149 - 156"},"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}
Pub Date : 2021-02-18DOI: 10.1177/1469605321990115
E. D. Jones, E. Bösl
In this article on the history of ancient DNA research, we argue that the innovation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the early 2000s has ushered in a second hype cycle much like the first hype cycle the field experienced in the 1990s with the advent of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). While the first hype cycle centered around the search for the oldest DNA, the field’s current optimism today promotes the rhetoric of revolution surrounding the study of ancient human gnomes. This is evidenced from written sources and personal interviews with researchers who feel the vast amount of data, the conclusions being made from this data, and the ever-increasing celebrity status of the field are perhaps moving too fast for their own good. Here, we use the concept of contamination, in both a literal and figurative understanding of the term, to explore the field’s continuities and disparities. We also argue that a number of additional, figurative interpretations of “contamination” are useful for navigating the current debate between geneticists and archaeologists regarding the origin, evolution, and migration of ancient humans across space and time. Our historical outlook on aDNA’s disciplinary development, we suggest, is necessary to accurately appreciate the state of the field, how it came to be, and where it might go in the future.
{"title":"Ancient human DNA: A history of hype (then and now)","authors":"E. D. Jones, E. Bösl","doi":"10.1177/1469605321990115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321990115","url":null,"abstract":"In this article on the history of ancient DNA research, we argue that the innovation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the early 2000s has ushered in a second hype cycle much like the first hype cycle the field experienced in the 1990s with the advent of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). While the first hype cycle centered around the search for the oldest DNA, the field’s current optimism today promotes the rhetoric of revolution surrounding the study of ancient human gnomes. This is evidenced from written sources and personal interviews with researchers who feel the vast amount of data, the conclusions being made from this data, and the ever-increasing celebrity status of the field are perhaps moving too fast for their own good. Here, we use the concept of contamination, in both a literal and figurative understanding of the term, to explore the field’s continuities and disparities. We also argue that a number of additional, figurative interpretations of “contamination” are useful for navigating the current debate between geneticists and archaeologists regarding the origin, evolution, and migration of ancient humans across space and time. Our historical outlook on aDNA’s disciplinary development, we suggest, is necessary to accurately appreciate the state of the field, how it came to be, and where it might go in the future.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":"21 1","pages":"236 - 255"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321990115","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44939039","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}
Pub Date : 2021-02-01DOI: 10.1177/1469605321992929
Heba Abd el-Gawad, Alice Stevenson
This paper responds to a need to address the colonial history of collections of Egyptian archaeology and to find new ways in which Egyptian audiences can assume greater agency in such a process. The ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage’ project presents a model of engagement whereby foreign museum collections become the inspiration for Egyptians to express their own feelings about the removal of their heritage abroad using idioms and traditional storytelling of cultural relevance to them. A series of online comics confronting contentious heritage issues, including the display of mummified human remains, eugenics, looting and destruction, is discussed. It is argued that this approach is not only more relatable for Egyptian communities, but moreover provides space for the development of grass-roots critique of heritage practices, both in the UK and in Egypt. Museums have a responsibility to take on board these critiques, curating not just objects but relationships forged amongst them in historical and contemporary society.
{"title":"Egypt’s dispersed heritage: Multi-directional storytelling through comic art","authors":"Heba Abd el-Gawad, Alice Stevenson","doi":"10.1177/1469605321992929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321992929","url":null,"abstract":"This paper responds to a need to address the colonial history of collections of Egyptian archaeology and to find new ways in which Egyptian audiences can assume greater agency in such a process. The ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage’ project presents a model of engagement whereby foreign museum collections become the inspiration for Egyptians to express their own feelings about the removal of their heritage abroad using idioms and traditional storytelling of cultural relevance to them. A series of online comics confronting contentious heritage issues, including the display of mummified human remains, eugenics, looting and destruction, is discussed. It is argued that this approach is not only more relatable for Egyptian communities, but moreover provides space for the development of grass-roots critique of heritage practices, both in the UK and in Egypt. Museums have a responsibility to take on board these critiques, curating not just objects but relationships forged amongst them in historical and contemporary society.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":"21 1","pages":"121 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321992929","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46830209","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}
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