1st Edition
Archaeologies of Placemaking Monuments, Memories, and Engagement in Native North America
This collection of original essays explores the tensions between prevailing regional and national versions of Indigenous pasts created, reified, and disseminated through monuments, and Indigenous peoples’ memories and experiences of place. The contributors ask critical questions about historic preservation and commemoration methods used by modern societies and their impact on the perception and identity of the people they supposedly remember, who are generally not consulted in the commemoration process. They discuss dichotomies of history and memory, place and displacement, public spectacle and private engagement, and reconciliation and re-appropriation of the heritage of indigenous people shown in these monuments. While the case studies deal with North American indigenous experience—from California to Virginia, and from the Southwest to New England and the Canadian Maritime—they have implications for dealings between indigenous peoples and nation states worldwide. Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress.
Biography
Patricia E. Rubertone is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Her research combines archaeology, history, and anthropology to study questions of colonialism, landscape and memory, and representation. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in settler and Native American contexts in New England, and has worked collaboratively with the Narragansett Indians. She also serves on the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.