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Seeking Radical Solidarity in Heritage Studies: Exploring the Intersection of Black Feminist Archaeologies and Geographies in Oak Bluffs, MA

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Jeffrey J. Burnett
Jeffrey J. Burnett
Jeffrey J. Burnett
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This article discusses the development of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in the historic resort town of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. It builds on critical theoretical agendas in community-based archaeologies by asking how Black feminist theory-informed CBPR could help archaeologists create meaningful, equitable, and theoretically grounded relationships with local communities. Through rigorous archaeological investigations, CBPR methodologies can empower communities to use the past to effect social change on their terms. By collaborating with communities to strengthen and expand existing heritage programs, archaeologists can share their skills, knowledges, and critical points of view while actively minimizing power imbalances and increasing accountability.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-021-00601-y
1 3
Seeking Radical Solidarity inHeritage Studies: Exploring
theIntersection ofBlack Feminist Archaeologies
andGeographies inOak Bluffs, MA
JereyJ.Burnett1
Accepted: 9 March 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2021
Abstract
This article discusses the development of a community-based participatory research
(CBPR) project in the historic resort town of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. It builds
on critical theoretical agendas in community-based archaeologies by asking how
Black feminist theory-informed CBPR could help archaeologists create meaningful,
equitable, and theoretically grounded relationships with local communities. Through
rigorous archaeological investigations, CBPR methodologies can empower commu-
nities to use the past to effect social change on their terms. By collaborating with
communities to strengthen and expand existing heritage programs, archaeologists
can share their skills, knowledges, and critical points of view while actively mini-
mizing power imbalances and increasing accountability.
Keywords Community-based participatory research· Collaborative archaeology·
Black landownership· Community construction· Massachusetts
“No voting on who gets to be people.” N.K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate (2016)
Introduction
In this article I discuss the early-stage development of a community-based participa-
tory research (CBPR) project that explores the latenineteenth- and earlytwentieth-
century history of the resort town of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts (Fig.1). This article
follows other recent publications that extend critical theoretical agendas into com-
munity-based archaeologies (Bloch 2020; Cipolla etal. 2019; Kiddey 2020). I aim
* Jeffrey J. Burnett
burne138@msu.edu
1 Department ofAnthropology, Michigan State University, E-30 McDonel Hall, 817 E Shaw
Lane, EastLansing, MI48825, USA
International Journal of Historical Archaeology (2022) 26:53–78
Published online: 5 April 2021
/
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Black geographies approach through their pluralities as highlighted by Bledsoe and Wright (2019), excel in critiques of the exclusionary logic of knowledge production (Noxolo 2022) in the understanding of places. Ultimately, Black geographies in relation to heritage and archaeology as previously highlighted by scholars (e.g., Burnett 2022;Dunnavant 2021;Scott 2016;Singleton and Landers 2021) open up possibilities for critical attention to places associated with transatlantic slavery and how people reconstruct and reproduce, make and remake places over time (Hawthorne 2019;McKittrick 2006). In postcolonial societies, individuals and communities reshape the physical, social, and cultural spaces in which their ancestors and predecessors lived in colonial situations. ...
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