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Transatlantic Currents: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future of Global Historical Archaeology

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The past, present, and future of global historical archaeology is addressed first through a comparative analysis of the development of the discipline in North America and the British Isles, and second by a consideration of the recent expansion of interest around the world and particularly in postcolonial contexts. Drawing from a range of global case studies, it is argued that the most productive way forward for the discipline lies in its ability to engage productively with contemporary societal problems and global challenges in locally rooted and contingent ways.

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... Currently, "descendant community" is defined at the Angela Site as all African Americans with known ancestral ties to Tidewater Virginia (for example, through oral history traditions) and symbolically through attachment to the research. When working with African American communities, ethical questions addressing power relations associated with structural racism and other colonial legacies of inequality that still disproportionately affect communities of color must be considered (Battle-Baptiste 2011 ;Franklin 2001;Grosfoguel et al. 2015;Horning 2016;La Roche and Blakey 1997;SAA 2017). As Historic Jamestowne has not always been an inclusive space for people of color, the 2019 commemoration was an opportunity to reflect on these exclusionary legacies. ...
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The archaeological record for ceramics is one of the most complete and informative available to historical archaeologists. Ceramics are widely used, easily breakable, not recyclable, and do not decompose. Therefore, changes in the use of dishes and crockery, and in their styles, are well-documented, although interpretations of these changes vary. James Deetz (1977; 1996) argues that change in colonial ceramics is caused by the more or less uniform entry and acceptance of a Georgian, or modern, worldview. George Miller, (1991: 2–3; n.d.; Miller, Martin, and Dicken-son 1994) suggests that change is a function of externally derived price, which determines use. The purpose of this chapter is to present an alternative reason for the changes in the use of dishes, their styles, and their functions. The hypothesis offered here is that changing orderliness in ceramics at the table is caused by the advent of the time routines and work disciplines of capitalism.
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In the battle over the origins of the United States, scholars and publics have claimed primacy for the Middle Atlantic region as a central place in the mythology of the United States as a nation whose exceptionalism and greatness were destined due to the dynamic energy and creativity inherent in cross-cultural exchange. Spatially middling, the region, and in particular Delaware, was simultaneously a contested borderland with a unique, often misunderstood colonial history. So too was Sweden both the middle of Scandinavia and the northern borderland of Europe. In the early seventeenth century, Sweden’s imperialism brought the European cultural centre to the margins. This chapter explores the implications of these spatial imaginaries. The materialities of seventeenth-century imperial–colonial Sweden were both crafted in the dynamic, liminal, tweenness of borderlands in the middle.
Article
The New World was present in material representations in the 17th-century castle of Skokloster, Sweden, in contrast to the concepts of history and centrality that were used in the construction of a locality of power in a European colonial society. Material displays, architecture and art visually constructed the New World as an integral, yet inferior, part of the Old World. The commodification of the material culture of the North American Indian reproduced the dominion of the colonial powers but at the same time included the New World in the old. Parallel to this process was the integration of history on the estate. Architecture, the construction of landscape and material culture became an arena for the display of a new, hybrid global culture, signifying the advent of modernity. Although juxtaposed in their display, the New and Old Worlds mingled and created a world of hybridity expressed and executed in the castle and estate of Skokloster.
Book
This bold and illuminating 2006 study examines the role of archaeology in the formation of the modern Japanese nation and explores the processes by which archaeological practice is shaped by national social and intellectual discourse. Leading Japanese archaeologist Koji Mizoguchi argues that an understanding of the past has been a central component in the creation of national identities and modern nation states and that, since its emergence as a distinct academic discipline in the modern era, archaeology has played an important role in shaping that understanding. By examining in parallel the uniquely intense process of modernisation experienced by Japan and the history of Japanese archaeology, Mizoguchi explores the close interrelationship between archaeology, society and modernity, helping to explain why we do archaeology in the way that we do. This book is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the history of archaeology or modern Japan.