-
- THE PRE-COLONIAL HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS
- (Also known as North American Archaeology)
-
- Anthropology 369
- Fall 1996
-
- PROFESSOR: Arthur S. Keene Phone: 545-0214
- PHONE:545-0214 EMAIL: Keene@anthro.umass.edu
-
-
- Required Texts: Ancient North America Second Edition. by
Brian Fagan. Thames and Hudson 1995. Available at Food For
Thought Books, 106 N. Pleasant St.
-
- What this awl means. by Janet Spector. Minnesota Historical
Society Press. 1993. Available at Food for Thought Books, 106 N.
Pleasant St.
-
- Collected Readings for Anthropology 369:Available at
Collective Copies, 71 S. Pleasant St., Amherst
-
- Optional Text: Discovering our Past by Wendy Ashmore and
Robert Sharer. Available at Food for Thought Books.
(Previous editions of this or of Brian Fagan's Archaeology: a
brief introduction are sometimes available at local used book
shops).
-
- THIS OPTIONAL TEXT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ANYONE WITHOUT A
PREVIOUS COURSE IN ARCHAEOLOGY
-
- Course Prospectus:
- This course examines the history of Native North Americans
from their arrival on this continent (sometime between 80,000 and
12,000 years ago) up until their initial encounters with
Europeans. We use archaeology to construct the histories of
this vast period because written historical records are incomplete
and unsatisfying. By the time Europeans got around to recording
their observations of indigenous societies in North America,
Native populations had been decimated by a series of epidemics,
wars and political upheavals that accompanied the colonial
project. Furthermore, much of what Europeans did manage to record
in the 16th -18th centuries was filtered through the lenses of
European ethnocentrism and racism. Most early European observers,
given their own cultural biases, were simply unable to understand
the Native institutions that they encountered. Institutions such
as communal property, usufruct land rights, flexible group
identity, non-hierarchical leadership and gender equality, for
example, were simply incomprehensible to early European visitors.
Hence, most early European accounts are filtered through the
idioms of the times: hierarchy, privilege, patriarchy and power.
If history is traditionally written by the victors, it is the task
of archaeology TO TELL A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORY, sensitive to the
voices excluded from the written record. The challenge to "tell a
different story" is especially timely now as Americans struggle to
understand and acomodate a growing multi-culturalism and to
embrace the notion that an accurate American History must
encompass many voices and myriad experiences. The conflicts and
struggles over recent efforts to celebrate (or mourn) the
quincentennial of Columbus' "discovery" of America both in Europe
and in the Americas attest to the fact that we actively use the
past to construct the present. Efforts to deny a polyvocal
history are efforts to silence subaltern (or non-dominant) voices
in the present. In this class we will learn that the history of
this continent began long before 1492. We will think critically
about what it means to "being history" with the arrival of
Columbus in 1492 and will develop alternative tellings of the
history of this continent which unravel the complexities and the
ideologies inherent in histories which celebrate the triumph of
European civilization over indigenous societies.
- We also will use the archaeology of North America as a forum
for examining broad problems of human socio-cultural
evolution. For example, we will examine (but not limit
ourselves to) such questions as:
-
- 1. WHY ARE HUMAN SOCIETIES SO DIFFERENT? How might we
account for the varied ways in which human societies organize
themselves? (Native American Societies exhibited considerable
diversity in social, political and economic organization across
time and space).
-
- 2. WHY DO THINGS CHANGE? HOW HAVE WE BENEFITED OR FAILED TO
BENEFIT FROM TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS? Why do societies change
or fail to change through time? To what extent are these
changes a result of adjustment to different physical or social
environments? How has the relationship of people to their resource
base changed with changing economic organization. (or how might we
characterize the ecological position of various Native groups
prior to and after their encounter with Europeans).How does the
evolution of culture in the Americas parallel or differ from
events in Africa, Asia and Europe? How might we account for
the similarities and differences?
-
- 3. WHERE DOES EXPLOITATION AND INEQUALITY COME FROM? IS THE
DRIVE TO DOMINATE PART OF HUMAN NATURE? Some indigenous societies
resisted the impulse to build social hierarchies right through the
arrival of the Europeans. Others had complex institutions of
hereditary inequalities. Thus ,we might ask, what gives rise to
political complexity and social inequality in small-scale
societies?
-
- 4. WHO CARES? WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE STUDY OF HISTORY?
What can our knowledge of the past tell us about ourselves and
about our future? Specifically, what can the study of
pre-capitalist (or non-capitalist) societies, tell us about life
in the era of global capitalism and about the possibilities for
the future?
-
- We will also pursue more basic historical questions, such as,
when did people first arrive in the Americas and why did they
come here; how can we explain the widespread extinction of large
animals like the mammoth (megafauna) shortly after the arrival of
humans; how might we account for the efflorescence of cultural
complexity in some areas of the continent and absence in others;
what accounts for the shift from nomadism to sedentary village
life, and when, why and how were new technologies developed
(e.g. ceramics, agriculture, projectile weapons) and how
might we account for the differential adoption of these new
technologies in different parts of the continent?
-
- Finally, we will want to consider how an understanding of
early Native American history alters or enhances what we know
about the early European colonial enterprise in North America,
about the impact of Europeans on Natives and vice versa, and about
the impact of their interaction on the landscape as a whole. Of
course, to answer any of these questions we must consider more
basic issues such as how do we know about the remote past.
How do archaeological facts or data (artifacts, ecofacts, sites,
features, etc.) get translated into history.
-
- The histories or prehistories we write are products of using
theory and method to assign meaning to data. Throughout the
course, we will examine specific data sets (that is specific
archaeological observations - usually the results of excavations),
the methods used to make sense of those data and the general
theories which guide our investigations. While the course is set
in North America, we will, throughout the course, evaluate how
archaeologists use archaeological data and how they define their
problems. The goals, then, are to provide not only an
understanding of the human experience in a variety of physical and
social environments in North America, but a framework for
anthropological archaeology in any context.
-
- Course Requirements: New course material is presented in
2 lectures per week and is supplemented by a sizeable amount of
required reading (50-75 pages per week). Attendance at all
lectures is required!! Readings are to be completed by their
assigned date in the syllabus. Lectures will generally follow up
or draw on materials in the assigned readings. Without the
readings, the lectures will not usually make much sense (and
vice versa) and it is therefore essential that you keep up with
reading assignments. Study guides will be handed out roughly every
other week to help guide you through the reading and to facilitate
discussion and, hopefully, lively debate. We will frequently
interrupt lectures to debate points raised or pursue questions
from class and on occasion we will devote an entire class meeting
to small discussion groups. Students are encouraged to raise
questions concerning issues brought up in readings and lectures
and I will occasionally randomly call on students to comment on
materials in the readings. BE WARNED AND BE PREPARED!
-
- Each of you will be expected to produce a critical review of
Janet Spector's book, the details of which are outlined later in
this syllabus. The projects is due in class on Tuesday October 15
. All late papers will be penalized one full grade. No
papers will be accepted after Tuesday October 29 and no
incompletes will be granted, except in the most unusual
circumstances (e.g. hospitalization, imprisonment).
-
- Homework will be assigned at irregular intervals. There will
be 5 homework assignments of varying length- each requiring you
to prepare notes and commentaries on the required readings.
There also will be a short midterm and final exam. Exam
questions will be short answer and short essay. Questions
will emphasize a synthesis of lectures, readings, class
discussions and your own creative thought. They will
resemble those found on the study guides. A copy of an old
mid-term and final will be placed on reserve in the library tower
before the third week of class.
-
- Final grades will be based as follows:
-
- Midterm Exam: 25%
- Final Exam: 25%
- Critical Essay 25%
- Homework/Participation: 25%
-
-
- Another note on deadlines:
- Homework will typically be assigned on a Thursday and will
be due the following Tuesday. Students who miss classes where
homework is assigned will still be expected to turn in the
homework on the due date. Similarly, students who must miss
classes where homework is due, are expected to have their homework
delivered to the class on time. Late Homework will be downgraded 1
point/working day.
-
- No prerequisites but...: There is no prerequisite for
Anthro 369 but a basic archaeological vocabulary is essential.
Those individuals with little or no background in archaeology
should read the optional texts listed above or should browse
through a basic introduction to archaeology. There are a
number of good introductions to archaeology in the Library Tower.
If you check one of these out, please check with me to be sure
that it is appropriate.
-
-
- SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
-
-
- Class 1 (TH/Sep. 5 ) General Introduction :
-
- READ: Almeida (1992)
- Bruchac (1987)
- CLASS 2 (TU/ Sep. 9) Overview Of The "Prehistory" of North
America. Film: The Early Americans. (runs 55
min.)
-
Read: Fagan (1991) C.1
- Zinn (1980)
-
Momaday (1991)
-
- CLASS 3 (TH/ Sep 11) Reading and writing critical history.
Who gets to tell the story? What kind of story gets told? What
are the consequnces of different stories? Is science an social
activity? Discussion of the readings to date with emphasis on the
guiding questions, theories and epistemologies in Americanist
Archaeology. What are some of the gurus of the profession doing
and how is this similar or different to what we want to do this
semester?
-
- HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE IN CLASS TODAY
-
- Read: Fagan
(1991) C.2,3
- Wallace (1995)
- Zinn (1990)
-
- CLASS 4 (T/Sep 16) A Brief Intellectual History of the Later
Years of American Archaeology: What are (and what have been)
the Guiding Questions and Why? Processual vs. Post-processual
archaeology? What's the difference? What's the big deal?
-
- Read: review Fagan C.2,3
- Keene and Chilton (1995)
-
- CLASS 5 (TH /Sep 18) Intellectual history. Part II.
Feminism and ethnicity in modern Americanist archaeology.
- Read: Chilton (1994)
-
- CLASS 6(T/Sep 23) Preclovis: In Pursuit of the Earliest
Americans: Or When does American history Begin? (when did
folk first arrive in North America and why should we care)?
-
- Read: Fagan (1995) C.4
- Adavasio and
Carlisle (1986)
-
- CLASS 7(TH/Sep 25) Preclovis Continued: consideration of some
alternative and perhaps unlikely sources of data including
teeth, genes and language.
-
- Read: Zegura
(1987)
-
-
- CLASS 8(T/Oct 1) The real pioneers. Western Paleo-Indian
and the Ecology of Big Game Hunting.Social organization of Big
game hunters reconsidered. A discussion of the Lindenmeier site.
Analogies from Vore and other historic sites. A brief look at
Eastern Paleo-Indians and a consideration of continuity across the
continent.
-
- Read:
Wheat (1967)
- Fagan
(1995) C.5
- Fagan (1995) C.6
-
-
- CLASS 9(TH/ Oct 3) Pleistocene Extinctions: What was the
Impact of Early Americans on the Ecology of the Continent?
-
-
Read: Grayson (1987)
-
- CLASS 10 (T/ Oct 8) Post Pleistocene adaptations:stability and
Change in the Eastern Woodlands: Temperate Forest Foragers
and the Early and Middle Archaic Period.
-
- READ: Fagan: C.7, 17
-
- CLASS 11 (TH/Oct 10)Changing social organization and public
ritual burial data for the Late Archaic-- the cases of Indian
Knoll and the Maritimes.
-
- CRITICAL ESSAY DUE IN CLASS TODAY
-
- Read: Fagan C.18
- McGhee (1976)
- Tuck (1970)
- ***********************************************************************************
- CLASS 12 (T/Oct 15) Interlude: Special Columbus Day Lecture.
- ***********************************************************************************
-
- CLASS 13 (TH/Oct 17) Whose history is it anyway. Archaeology,
archaeologists and the rights of Native peoples. Part I. Video:
Ozette, a gift from the past.
-
- Class 14 (T/Oct 22) Late Archaic Social
Organization: Intensification of Social
Relations. (class processes in Prehistoric North America) A
discussion.
-
- Read: Classen
(1991)
- Bender 1985
- Lee 1990
-
- CLASS 15 (TH/Oct 24) Technological Revolutions (?)
Foraging-Gardening, Perceramic-Ceramic. Did gardening/farming and
pottery bring about civilization?
-
- Read: Fagan C. 15 (pp 303-314) C. 19 (p. 397-402)
-
Watson and Kennedy (1991)
-
Goodman and Armelagos (1985)
-
Ford (1985)
-
-
- ***********************************************************************************
- CLASS 16 (T/Oct 29) MID-TERM EXAM IN CLASS COVERING
MATERIALS THROUGH OCT 22
- ************************************************************************************
-
-
- CLASS 17 (TH /OCT 31)SETTLING - IN. THE WOODLAND PERIOD.
Intensification, Trade and the Rise of Asymmetrical Social
Relations (?) :Adena and Hopewell.
-
- Read: Hall
(1979)
- Lepper
(1995)
- Fagan C. 19 (remainder) and 20
-
-
- CLASS 18 (T/NOV 5) The ethnography of burial ritual,
geoglyphs and other sorts of data.Some tentative conclusions on
Hopewellian monuments.
-
-
Read: as above
-
- CLASS 19 (TH/ NOV 7) Tribalization: the Decline of Hopewell
and the Rise of Tribes (or, how might we account for a rise
in supra-local political integration?)
-
- CLASS 20 (T/ Nov 12) The Rise and spread of Ranked
Societies. The Mississippians (or the
institutionalization of inequality in the eastern woodlands).
-
-
Read: Perigrine (1991)
-
Fowler (1975)
-
Fagan C.20
-
- CLASS 21 (TH/Nov 14) RESISTANCE AND DOMINATION: Core
periphery relationships within the Mississippian -(a
consideration of Moundville, Alabama).
-
- Read: Fagan, C. 21
- Paynter nd
- Dincauze and Hasenstab
-
-
- CLASS 22 (T/ Nov 19) Cores and Peripheries beyond the
Mississippian heartland. Late Woodland Adaptations in
the Mississippian Hinterland. An Introduction to Iroquois
Archaeology and a consideration of warfare in ancient America.
-
- Read:
Tuck (1971)
-
Fagan (1991) C.21
- Furgeson (1992)
-
- Review; Dincauze and Hasenstab
- Fagan C.22
-
- CLASS 23 (TH/Nov 21) Now for Something Somewhat
Different: The Southwestern USA. A Comparative
Perspective.
-
- Read: Fagan (1991) C.14-16
-
- Film: (in class) THE CHACO LEGACY
-
- CLASS 24 (T/Nov 26) Late Anasazi and Chaco: Communal Mode or
vertical hierarchies?
-
- Read: Lekson, Stein and Judge (1988)
-
-
- CLASS 25 (T/Dec 3) Late Prehistoric Communal Societies in
the Southwest - additional considerations including warfare and
cannibalism. Some conclusions.
-
- Read: Martin (1995)
-
- CLASS 26 (TH/Dec 5) The INVASION OF AMERICA: Resistance and
domination revisited: The history of the colonized: THE CONTACT
PERIOD- Early European/Native Relations/The Archaeology of
Colonialism.
-
- Read: Fagan (1991) C.23
-
- CLASS 27 (T/ Dec 10) Who owns the past. PART II
Preservation , Public Archaeology and the Law. What is
the relationship between archaeologists and Native
communities? A concluding discussion.
-
-
- Read: Keene and Chilton - (1995) review
- Grinde (1991)
- McKeown (1995)
-
-
- Class 28 (TH/Dec 12) FINAL CLASS, CONCLUSION AND REPRISE:
How do we write history and for whose benefit? What stories can
we /should we take away from this class? The future of different
pasts.
-
-
- LIST OF REQUIRED READINGS- 1996
-
- Adavasio, J.M. and Ronald C. Carlisle
- 1986 Pennsylvania Pioneers. Natural History 95(12)20-27.
-
- Almeida, Deidre
- 1992 A more personal view. In Native peoples and museum
in the Connecticut River Valley: a guide for learning. ed. by D.
Krass and B. O'Connell. Northampton Historical Society,
Northampton, MA.
- Bender, Barbara
- 1985 Emergent tribal formations in the American
midcontinent. American Antiquity 50(1):52-62.
-
- Bruchac, Joseph
- 1987 Rooted like the ash trees: Abenaki people and the
land. in Rooted like the ash trees: New England Indians and the
land. ed. by Richard G. Carlson. Eaglewing Press, Nausatuck, CT.
Pp. 2-5.
-
- Chilton, Elizabeth
- 1994 In search of paleo-women:gender implications of
remains from Paleoindian sites in the northeast. in Bulletin of
the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 55(1):8-13.
-
- Classen, Cheryl
- 1991 Gender, shellfishing and the Shell Mound Archaic. In
Engendering archaeology, edited by G. Gero and M Conkey.
Blackwell:London.
-
- Dincauze, Dena F.
- 1993 Pioneering in the pleistocene: large paleoindian sites
in the northeast. In Archaeology of Eastern North America.
Papers in honor of Stephen Williams. Mississippia Department of
Archives and History. Jackson, Miss. pp. 43-60.
-
- Dincauze, D.F. and R. J. Hasenstab
- 1989 Explaining the Iroquois: tribalization on a prehistoric
periphery. in Center and Periphery. edited by T.C. Champion. Pp
67-86. Unwin:London.
-
- Fagan, Brian
- 1995 Ancient North America: the archaeology of a continent.
Second edition. Thames and Hudson, London.
-
- Ford, Richard I.
- 1985 The process of plant food production in prehistoric North
America. In Prehistoric food production in North America, edited
by R. I Ford. Anthropological Papers of the Museum of
Anthropology, University of Michigan, 75. Pp. 1-19.
-
- Fowler, Melvin L.
- 1975 A pre-columbian urban center on the Mississippi.
Scientific American.
-
- Ferguson, R. B.
- 1992 Tribal warfare. Scientific American. January:108-113.
-
- Goodman, Alan H. and George G. Armelagos
- 1985 Disease and death at Dr. Dickson's mounds. Natural
History 94(9):12-18.
-
- Grayson, Donald
- 1987 Death by natural causes. Natural History 97(5):8-12.
-
- Grinde, Donald A. Jr.
- 1991 The reburial of American Indian remains and funerary
objects. Northeast Indian Quarterly VIII (2): 35-38.
-
- Hall Robert
- 1979 In search of the ideology of the Adena-Hopewell climax.
in Hopewell Archaeology, edited by D. Brose and N. Greber. Kent
State University Press. Pp 258-265.
-
- Keene, Arthur S. and Elizabeth Chilton
- 1995 Toward an archaeology of the Pocumtuck homeland. Paper
presented at the 1995 meeting of the Society for American
Archaeology, Minneapolis.
-
- Lee, Richard B.
- 1990 Primitive communisim and the origin of social
inequality. In The evolution of political systems. ed. Steadman
Upham. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225-245.
-
- Lekson, S., T. Windes, J. Stein and W. Judge
- 1988 The Chaco Canyon Community. Scientific
American. 259:100-109.
-
- Lepper, Bradley T.
- 1995 Tracking Ohio's great Hopewell road.
Archaeology 48(6):52-56.
-
- Martin, Debra
- 1995 Violence against women in the La Plata River Valley
(A.D. 1000-1300). xerox
-
- McGhee, Robert
- 1976 The burial at L'Anse Amour. National Museum
of Canada.
-
- McKeown, C. Timothy
- 1995 Confessions of a bureaucrat. Federal Archaeology
7(3):13-17.
-
- Momaday, M. Scott
- 1991 The becoming of the Native: Man in America
before Columbus. in America in 1492.
- edited by Alvin M. Josephy. Knopf: NY. Pp. 13-20.
-
- Paynter, Robert
- nd Social complexity in peripheries: problems and models.
xerox.
-
- Perigrine, Peter
- 1991 Prehistoric chiefdoms on the American mid-continent: a
word system based on prestige goods. In Core/periphery relations
in the pre-capitalist worlds. edited by C. Chase-Dunn and T. Hall.
Unwin(??): London. Pp. 193-211.
-
- Tuck, James A.
- 1970 An Archaic Indian cemetery in Newfoundland.
Scientific American 22(6):112-121.
- 1971 The Iroquois Confederacy. Scientific
American.
-
- Wallace, Michael
- 1995 The battle of the enola gay. Radical historians
newsletter. #72(May 1995).
-
- Watson, P.J. and M Kennedy
- 1991 The development of horticulture in the eastern woodlands
of North America: womens' role. In Engendering archaeology. edited
by J Gero and M Conkey. Pp. 225-275.
-
- Wheat, J.B.
- 1967 A Paleoindian bison kill. Scientific American.
-
- Zimmerman, Larry
- 1994 Sharing control of the past. Archaeology November
PP.65-67.
-
- Zinn, Howard
- 1989 Objections to objectivity. Z Magazine. October:58-62.
-
- 1980 Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress. excerpted
from A people's history of the United States. by Howard Zinn.
Harper and Row:NY. Pp 1-21.
-
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
- CRITIQUE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY
-
- GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: Please read these instructions
carefully!
- All papers must be typed (double spaced). All papers are
due in class on Tuesday, Oct 15 . Please proof read carefully.
Papers will be evaluated for style as well as for content.
Excessive errors and typos will result in a grade reduction.
-
- The Purpose of this project is to:
-
- 1) allow you to examine how an archaeologist brings theory,
method and data together to explore a specific problem in North
American Prehistory.
-
- 2) develop your ability to read analytically and to critique
the work of others.
-
- Your essay should reflect a careful consideration of both of
these objectives.
-
-
- Your task: Write a critical review of Janet Spector's book,
What this awl means. There is no required length though most of
your essays will probably be in the neighborhood of 4 pages. All
papers must be typed and are due on or before Oct 15. Your
critique should be more than a book report. Your task is to
evaluate this work in terms of it's contribution to the
Precolumbian History of Native America bearing in mind the kinds
of issues that we have stressed in the early part of the term. How
well does the author bring theory , method and data to bear on a
specific question? What kind of a story does she tell? Is the
story believable; is it supported by sound analyses of data or
cleverly constructed theory? In order to evaluate this you will
need to read thoroughly and carefully.
-
- There is no set format for writing a critique (you may wish to
check the book review section of American Antiquity or American
Anthropologist to see how others have approached this problem.)
Each critique should probably include the following sections
(within a well crafted essay with elegant prose).
-
- SUMMARY: a brief summary of the objectives, content and
organization of the work. (What was Spector trying to do, how did
she do it, what did she learn).
-
- CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: here, you should specifically assess
the research./ What are its major strengths and weaknesses,
consistencies and inconsistencies in each of the following areas:
- a) problem definition - (what is she trying to do/know and
why?
- b) analysis - what data are brought to bear on the question.
- what theory and method inform the data. Does this make
- sense to you?
- c)interpretation, conclusions and results - does the author
pull everything together to make a convincing argument? Why or why
not?
- d) does the author have a story to tell. Does she make
the people real? Does she do this by effectively linking the
"archaeology" to the people. That is, did you find this an
informative and compelling piece of work?
-
-
- REMEMBER: you must support your arguments. !!!!!!!!
-
-
- CONCLUSIONS:Your overall assessment on the quality of the
value of the research and the quality of the presentation. Try to
relate your conclusions specifically to some of the goals we have
set for ourselves in this particular course.
-
- In writing any critique you might wish to address yourself to
(but certainly should not limit yourself to) the following
questions:
-
- 1. Why was this work written? Should it have been written?
- 2. What questions is the author asking. (HOW)Does the work
articulate with any of the BIG questions in anthropology or
history? or, how does (or does) this work serve the goals of
anthropology, of social science, of history?
- 3. Does the study tell us anything we didn't know before?
- 4. What about assumptions: Archaeologists must always make
assumptions to create/construct meaning from their data
(artifacts/ features etc..). Are the assumptions made explicit?
Are they well justified (or justifiable)?
- 5. Did the author arrive at her conclusions in a "logical"
manner. Is the author convincing? Did she consider alternative
interpretations? Can you think of other alternatives? Are you
convinced? Are you interested? Why or why not?
- 6. What about the story. Can we find a story or a contribution
to a story here (see d. above). Is this book populated by real
people? (if so, you might consider, in what ways are they like (or
unlike) ourselves and what do these similarities or differences
mean?
- 7. Don't ignore the obvious. Is the book well written? Is the
argumentation clear. Is it well organized. Are illustrations and
figures provided when they might be helpful? What did you get out
of it? What did you (or did you not) enjoy.? How doe sit stack up
to the other cases you; have encountered so far this term?
-
- Some questions specific to Spector that are worth thinking
about.
-
- 1. What does Spector mean by a feminist archaeology? What is
feminism? Is feminist archaeology different from an archaeology of
gender? How is it different from other archaeology? Do you find
Spector's archaeology to be feminist? Why or why not ?How does
Spector's feminist archaeology compare with Keene's vision of a
feminist archaeology as presented in lecture? Why does Spector
feel that there is a need for a feminist archaeology? Do you
agree?
-
- 2. Aside from her professed feminism, is there anything else
about Spector's archaeology that marks it as post -processual?
-
- 3. Can you think of ways that Spector might have extended her
analysis -- might have been more ambitious (or was she already
too ambitious given the limitations of the material)?
-
- 4. Spector is working with historical materials that are
grounded in written documents and oral histories. Can you see any
ways that we might extend what she is trying to do, to more
ancient Native history where written records and oral histories
are lacking?
-
- 5. Spector rightfully worries that often our conclusions seem
trivial to Native peoples. How well does she contend with this
conundrum? How does her work stack up when compared with some of
the other stuff we've read this term? How satisfying are the
stories that she tells? What is to be done?
-
- 6. How sensitive is Spector to the ethical conundrums
associated with writing someone else's history? Is there anything
she might have done differently?
-
- You cannot possibly answer all of the questions listed above
and your are of course free to consider other questions that are
not listed. Your goal is to construct a thoughtful and thorough
review of this book. When writing, try to assume you are writing
for one of your classmates, that is, someone who knows a bit about
North American Archaeology, but not necessarily anything about
this particular work. Finally, remember that I have to read about
40 of these so try to be thoughtful and creative and neat.
-
-
- NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES ON THE INTERNET
-
- There is a wealth of material on North American archaeology
and contemporary Native American issues on the INTERNET. You are
not required to check any of this out, but you might find some of
the information useful and interesting especially if you are
already up and active on the NET. Also, please share with me any
interesting WEB sites that you come across.
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- THE WORLD WIDE WEB:-
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- A great place to start for information on North American
Archaeology is UCONN's ARCHNET. It has lots of stuff on the
Northeast but also on other spots in the USA and around the world.
and some hypertext links to contemporary Native American
Issues. http: //www.lib.uconn.edu/Archnet/
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- Some good starting places for Resources on Native American
issues are:
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- Guide to Native American Resources on the WEB:
- http://hanksville.phast.umass.edu/misc/NAresources.html
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- Native Web
- http://web.Maxwell.syr.edu/nativeweb/
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- NativeNET
- http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/natnet
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- Native American Resource Page
- http://www.ota.gov/native.html
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- Native NET, slected sites
- http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/natnet/hotlist/html
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- Another place to start is:
- NEWS GROUPS:
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- At UMASS - The TIN news reader (USENET on UNIX): [ from the
prompt after you log on, type TIN) When the reader comes up use
the help command (?) to review the list of available commands.
Type S or Su to subscribe to a given newsgroup. Newsgroups of
interest are
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- alt. native
- soc. culture.native
- sci. archaeology
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- LISTS:
- NativeNet has attracted a wide following in the academic
community, and many indigenous people have expressed an interest
in using computer communications technology for the purpose of
helping their communities keep in touch with one another, and for
a variety of more specific needs.
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- SUBSCRIBING
-
- You can subscribe to any of the mailing lists whose names are
listed below by sending a message to the indicated subscription
address (N.B., the character at the end of the native-l list name
is the letter L, and the last character of the host name tamvm1 is
the number ONE).
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- list name description subscription
address
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- native-l general information exchange
listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu
- natchat general discussion
listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu
- native education listserv@indycms.iupui.edu nat-hlth
- native health listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu
nat-lang
- native language listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu
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- To subscribe to one of these listserv-based lists, send a
message to the indicated subscription address. Your message
should be of the form:
-
- subscribe <listname> <Your Full Name>
-
- where <Your Full Name> is your full name (not your Email
address), and <listname> is one of the list names given
above. For example, Mary Doe could subscribe to the NAT-EDU list
by sending the message:
-
- subscribe nat-edu Mary Q. Doe
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- to the address listserv@indycms.iupui.edu
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- UNSUBSCRIBING
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- In order to unsubscribe from one of the NativeNet mailing
lists, you need to send a message to the appropriate listserver.
For the NATIVE-L, NATCHAT, and NAT-1492 lists, send a message to
"LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET" or "LISTSERV@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU" saying:
-
- signoff NATIVE-L
- or
- signoff NATCHAT
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