Indigenous Archaeology - Development

Development

A brief history of the relationships between archaeologists and Indigenous peoples speaks volumes about the development of Indigenous archaeology.

Much of the tension between archeologists and First Nations stems from the fact that "current heritage ethics and values almost exclusively reflect the values and beliefs of Euro-Americans". Mainstream archaeology has been complicit in variously objectifying, libeling and ignoring native people as it pursues the study of their past. The estrangement of Native people from their archaeological heritage is seen as resulting partly from an artificial distinction between history and prehistory that denies any connection between contemporary cultures and archaeological ones. The historical relationship between Native people and settler cultures effectively severed traditional history-keeping, and several centuries of Indigenous history have been smothered and distorted by those who have been its colonial custodians. The legacy of anthropologists and archaeologists behaving badly with respect to native people still endures, and the "seeds of repatriation" that resulted in Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) sprouted under intense dissatisfaction engendered by archaeologists maintaining a science-trumps-all attitude to Indigenous history.

Concerns over the blanket application of Western enlightenment thought and neo-liberal capitalist frameworks to Indigenous cultural heritage have re-ignited fundamental debates that contrast the role and status of science against the role and status of Indigenous knowledge. Science's universalizing myth and its allegedly objective "view from nowhere" with its appeal to pan-human values and reliance on empirical modes of understanding, is increasingly found wanting by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. Many agree with philosopher Alison Wylie in accepting empiricism as one route to productive knowledge, while finding "no reason to conclude that this insulates the scientific enterprise or its products from political, moral, or social scrutiny, much less establishes that scientific interests have a transcendent value that takes precedence over all other interests". (see also Forsman 1997 and White Deer 1997).

The growing determination to challenge this scientific monopoly is in part visible in the recent development by Indigenous peoples of strategies to use, protect, research and manage their cultural heritage. Indigenous archaeology is just one part of the spectrum of tools with which Aboriginal peoples are reclaiming their heritage.