3/9/20

Archaeological Theory:
Perspectives and Personalities

Ndlovu

Hawass

Atalay

Lyons

The Personal Side / The Personalities

of
Archaeology

If everyone is taught more or less the same archaeology

as undergraduates,
then how then do we end up with
so many different versions of it?

1
 3/9/20

Who we are — individually, collectively — influenced by?

How does that influence how “the past” is created?

Patty Jo Watson:
A History of Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

2
 3/9/20

Patty Jo Watson:
A History of Contemporary Archaeology in Practice
1974 Archaeology of the Mammoth Cave Area.
1979 Archaeological Ethnology in Western Iran.
1990 The Razor's Edge: Symbolic-Structuralist
Archaeology and the Expansion of Archaeological
Inference. American Anthropologist 92:613-629.
1995 Explaining the Transition to Agriculture. In Last
Hunters-First Farmers.
1995 Archaeology, Anthropology, and the Culture
Concept. American Anthropologist 97:683-694.
1999 Ethnographic Analogy and Ethnoarchaeology. In
Archaeology, History and Culture in Palestine and the
Near East.
2001 Origins of Food Production. In International
Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
And much more.

Watch This

3
 3/9/20

Intermission

Imogene Heap– “Daylight Robbery”

Patty Jo Watson:
A History of Contemporary Archaeology in Practice

4
 3/9/20

Chip Colwell
Jared Meyer

Education & Work

Education

• 2004: Indiana University, PhD, Anthropology, 2004

• 2001: Indiana University, MA, Anthropology, 2001

• 1996: University of Arizona, BA, Anthropology, 1996

Positions

• Senior curator of anthropology, Denver Museum of

Nature & Science

• University of Colorado, Denver: Lecturer

• Founder and editor-in-chief of SAPIENS

5
 3/9/20

Research & Influences

Research Areas

• Native American archaeology & ethnology

• Heritage management & repatriation

• Politics of the past

Influences

• PhD Advisor: Geoffrey W Conrad

• T.J. Ferguson

Outreach
“Repatriation can turn
museums from places of
colonialism into mediating
spaces that confront and
then move beyond their own
pasts. If my grandfather took
something from your poor
and powerless grandfather —
and your community
continues to suffer because of
it — then I am presented
with the chance to make
things right.”
—Chip Colwell
(New York Times, 2019)

6
 3/9/20

Notable Works
Objects of Survivance: A Material
History of the American Indian
School Experience (with Lindsay
M. Montgomery, 2019)

Plundered Skulls and Stolen

Spirits: Inside the Fight to
Reclaim Native America’s Culture
(2017)

With George!— The Premise and

Promise of Indigenous
Archaeology in American
Antiquity (with T. J. Ferguson,
D. Lippert, R. H. McGuire,
G. P. Nicholas, J. E. Watkins and
L. J. Zimmerman, 2010)

References
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2019 Chip Colwell (PDF). Electronic document,
https://www.dmns.org/media/2866/dmns_chip-cv.pdf

Colwell, Chip
2020 Can Museums Heal History’s Wounds? New York Times 5
April. New York.

Images
DMNS: https://www.dmns.org/science/anthropology/staff/chip-colwell/
TedxMileHigh: https://www.tedxmilehigh.com/speaker/chip-colwell/
DMNS: https://www.dmns.org/science/anthropology/staff/chip-colwell/
DMNS: https://www.dmns.org/science/anthropology/staff/chip-colwell/
University of Chicago Press:
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo21358784.
html

7
 3/9/20

Is Archaeology a science or a humanity?

When archaeologists wish to seek and understand patterns

and regularities in prehistoric cultures, they are scientists.

When they wish to understand the history and culture of

particular past societies, they are humanists.

Is Archaeology a science or a humanity?

When archaeologists wish to test their ideas about the past,

they are scientists.

When they wish to present their results in a way that will be

meaningful to the public, they are humanists.

8
 3/9/20

Which is Watson?

What do we learn from/about

the person behind the trowel?

Sally Schanfield on herself (+Lew Binford)

“An Interview with Sally Bright”

Sally Schanfield

9
 3/9/20

What do we learn from/about

the person behind the trowel?

Lynn Morgan on Meg Conkey

Lynn Morgan “Implementing Feminist Practice:

A Conversation with Meg Conkey”

What do we learn from/about

the person behind the trowel?

George Nicholas on Joe Watkins

“Joe Watkins”
(Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology)
Joe and George in Japan

10
 3/9/20

What do we learn from/about

the person(s) behind the trowel (and the interview notes)?
Key Observations from Your Readings… and Beyond?
—A Group Discussion—

11