Excavating America's Metaphor: Race, Diaspora, and Vindicationist Archaeologies

Over more than a century, African diasporan scholars have defined identity in complex forms that aspire to resist racial essentialism yet stake consequential political claims to collective roots. Historical archaeology has painted a rich picture of the material details of African American life that...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Historical archaeology 2008-01, Vol.42 (2), p.104-122
Main Author: Mullins, Paul R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American culture
African American studies
African Americans
Archaeological excavation
Archaeological paradigms
Archaeologists
Archaeology
Creolization
Cultural identity
Diaspora
Ethnicity
Forum
Group identity
Historical archaeology
Hybridity
Political identity
Race
Racism
Social archaeology
Social Sciences
U.S.A
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Over more than a century, African diasporan scholars have defined identity in complex forms that aspire to resist racial essentialism yet stake consequential political claims to collective roots. Historical archaeology has painted a rich picture of the material details of African American life that also refutes black essentialism; however, archaeologists have crafted many utterly fluid African diasporan identities that sometimes fail to examine the global connections, antiracist citizen rights, and concrete cultural heritage long examined by diasporan scholars. An empirically and politically rigorous African diasporan archaeology would be significantly extended by diasporan scholarship's vindicationist and reflective antiracist perspectives. Such an archaeology could disrupt essentialist categories and outline concrete foundations for diasporan identity without lapsing into either particularism or hyperconstructivism.
ISSN:0440-9213
2328-1103
DOI:10.1007/BF03377076