Joe Watkins – författare

As a practicing archaeologist and a Choctaw Indian, Joe Watkins is uniquely qualified to speak about the relationship between American Indians and archaeologists. Tracing the often stormy relationship between the two, Watkins highlights the key arenas where the two parties intersect: ethics, legislation, and archaeological practice. Watkins describes cases where the mixing of indigenous values and archaeological practice has worked well—and some in which it hasn't—both in the United States and around the globe. He surveys the attitudes of archaeologists toward American Indians through an inventive series of of hypothetical scenarios, with some eye-opening results. And he calls for the development of Indigenous Archaeology, in which native peoples are full partners in the key decisions about heritage resources management as well as the practice of it. Watkins' book is an important contribution in the contemporary public debates in public archaeology, applied anthropology, cultural resources management, and Native American studies.

As a practicing archaeologist and a Choctaw Indian, Joe Watkins is uniquely qualified to speak about the relationship between American Indians and archaeologists. Tracing the often stormy relationship between the two, Watkins highlights the key arenas where the two parties intersect: ethics, legislation, and archaeological practice. Watkins describes cases where the mixing of indigenous values and archaeological practice has worked well—and some in which it hasn't—both in the United States and around the globe. He surveys the attitudes of archaeologists toward American Indians through an inventive series of of hypothetical scenarios, with some eye-opening results. And he calls for the development of Indigenous Archaeology, in which native peoples are full partners in the key decisions about heritage resources management as well as the practice of it. Watkins' book is an important contribution in the contemporary public debates in public archaeology, applied anthropology, cultural resources management, and Native American studies.

Challenging the Dichotomy explores how dichotomies regarding heritage dominate the discourse of ethics, practices, and institutions. Examining issues of cultural heritage law, policy, and implementation, editors Les Field, CristÓbal Gnecco, and Joe Watkins guide the focus to important discussions of the binary oppositions of the licit and the illicit, the scientific and the unscientific, incorporating case studies that challenge those apparent contradictions. Utilizing both ethnographic and archaeological examples, contributors ask big questions vital to anyone working in cultural heritage. What are the issues surrounding private versus museum collections? What is considered looting? Is archaeology still a form of colonialization? The contributors discuss this vis-À-vis a global variety of contexts and cultures from the United States, South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, Honduras, Colombia, Palestine, Greece, Canada, and from the Nasa, Choctaw, and Maori nations. Challenging the Dichotomy underscores how dichotomies—such as licit/illicit, state/nonstate, public/private, scientific/nonscientific—have been constructed and how they are now being challenged by multiple forces. Throughout the eleven chapters, contributors provide examples of hegemonic relationships of power between nations and institutions. Scholars also reflect on exchanges between Western and non-Western epistemologies and ontologies. The book’s contributions are significant, timely, and inclusive. Challenging the Dichotomy examines the scale and scope of “illicit” forms of excavation, as well as the demands from minority and indigenous subaltern peoples to decolonize anthropological and archaeological research.

Working as Indigenous Archaeologists explores the often-contentious relationship between Indigenous and other formerly colonized peoples and Archaeology through their own voices.Over the past 35-plus years, the once-novel field of Indigenous Archaeology has become a relatively familiar part of the archaeological landscape. It has been celebrated, criticized, and analyzed as to its practical and theoretical applications, and its political nature. No less important are the life stories of its Indigenous practitioners. What has brought some of them to become practicing archaeologists or heritage managers? What challenges have they faced from both inside and outside their communities? And why haven’t more pursued Archaeology as a vocation or avocation? This volume is a collection of 60 autobiographical chapters by Indigenous archaeologists and heritage specialists from around the world—some community based, some academic, some in other realms—who are working to connect past and present in meaningful, and especially personal ways. As Archaeology continues to evolve, there remain strong tensions between an objective, science-oriented, evidentiary-based approach to knowing the past and a more subjective, relational, humanistic approach informed by local values, traditional knowledge, and holistic perspective. While there are no maps for these new territories, hearing directly from those Indigenous individuals who have pursued Archaeology reveals the pathways taken. Those stories will provide inspiration and confidence for those curious about what lies ahead. This is an important volume for anyone interested in the present state and future of the archaeological discipline.