Introduction: Toward an Engaged Feminist Heritage Praxis

We advocate a feminist approach to archaeological heritage work in order to transform heritage practice and the production of archaeological knowledge. We use an engaged feminist standpoint and situate intersubjectivity and intersectionality as critical components of this practice. An engaged feminist approach to heritage work allows the discipline to consider women’s, men’s, and gender non-conforming persons’ positions in the field, to reveal their contributions, to develop critical pedagogical approaches, and to rethink forms of representation. Throughout, we emphasize the intellectual labor of women of color, queer and gender non-conforming persons, and early white feminists in archaeology

Sounding Situated Knowledges - Echo in Archaeoacoustics

This article proposes that feminist epistemologies via Donna Haraway's “Situated Knowledges” can be productively brought to bear upon theories of sonic knowledge production, as “sounding situated knowledges.” Sounding situated knowledges re-reads debates around the “nature of sound” with a Harawayan notion of the “natureculture of sound.” This aims to disrupt a traditional subject-object relation which I argue has perpetuated a pervasive “sonic naturalism” in sound studies. The emerging field of archaeoacoustics (acoustic archaeology), which examines the role of sound in human behaviour in archaeology, is theorized as an opening with potentially profound consequences for sonic knowledge production which are not currently being realized. The echo is conceived as a material-semiotic articulation, which akin to Haraway's infamous cyborg, serves as a feminist figuration which enables this renegotiation. Archaeoacoustics research, read following Haraway both reflectively and diffractively, is understood as a critical juncture for sound studies which exposes the necessity of both embodiedness and situatedness for sonic knowledge production. Given the potential opened up by archaeoacoustics through the figure of echo, a critical renegotiation of the subject-object relation in sound studies is suggested as central in further developing theories of sonic knowledge production

The Identification of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Aggregation Sites: The Case of Altamira [and Comments and Reply]

It is a common assumption that an aggregation-and-dispersion pattern characterizes most of the world\u27s hunter-gatherers, both past and present. A clarification of the pattern is put forth in support of the view that there is more to it than factors of subsistence ecology. Because there are many variants of hunter-gatherer aggregations, in terms of both activities and the factors that promote and effect them, it is clear that there will also be variation in their duration, location, cyclicity, and extent and the number and kinds of personnel involved. The implications of this variability for archeologists are discussed, and the need for establishing specific archeological test implications for the identification of each variant of prehistoric aggregation sites is emphasized. Data from one hypothesized aggregation locale, the Early Magdalenian site of Altamira (Cantabria, Spain), are drawn upon for a better understanding of the kinds of analytical questions we must frame and the kinds of data and analysis we need in the attempt to identify aggregation sites. Specifically, the analysis of engraved Magdalenian bones and antlers is expected to add to extant interpretations of Magdalenian site utilization based on regional faunal and lithic data. Specific test implications are set forth for the view that the Altamira engraved bone-and-antler assemblage was generated by engraving activities different from but related to those of otherwise dispersed engravers or bearers of the portable engraved materials. It is shown that indeed the diversity of engravings at Altamira is statistically greater than at any of the other Early Magdalenian sites studied. Further, although aspects of the design system are present everywhere, there are certain features that are unique to the hypothesized aggregation site and insignificantly few other features that are found elsewhere if lacking at Altamira. The demonstrable diversity of the Altamira engraving repertoire is supportive of the hypothesis that otherwise dispersed engravers contrib