Archaeologies of the Heart

Archaeological practice is currently shifting in response to feminist, indigenous, activist, community-based, and anarchic critiques of how archaeology is practiced and how science is used to interpret the past lives of people. Inspired by the calls for a different way of doing archaeology, this volume presents a case here for a heart-centered archaeological practice.

Heart-centered practice emerged in care-based disciplines, such as nursing and various forms of therapy, as a way to recognize the importance of caring for those on whom we work, and as an avenue to explore how our interactions with others impacts our own emotions and heart. Archaeologists are disciplined to separate mind and heart, a division which harkens back to the origins of western thought. The dualism between the mental and the physical is fundamental to the concept that humans can objectively study the world without being immersed in it. Scientific approaches to understanding the world assume there is an objective world to be studied and that humans must remove themselves from that world in order to find the truth. An archaeology of the heart rejects this dualism; rather, we see mind, body, heart, and spirit as inextricable.

An archaeology of the heart provides a new space for thinking through an integrated, responsible, and grounded archaeology, where there is care for the living and the dead, acknowledges the need to build responsible relationships with communities, and with the archaeological record, and emphasize the role of rigor in how work and research is conducted.

The contributions bring together archaeological practitioners from across the globe in different contexts to explore how heart-centered practice can impact archaeological theory, methodology, and research throughout the discipline.

Kisha Supernant, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and Director of the Institute of Prairie Archaeology. A Métis woman with ties to northern Alberta Cree and Métis communities, she works with Indigenous communities in western Canada to explore how archaeologists and communities can build collaborative research relationships. An award-winning teacher, researcher, and writer, her research interests include the relationship between cultural identities, landscapes, and the use of space, Métis archaeology, and heart-centered archaeological practice. She has published in local and international journals on GIS in archaeology, collaborative archaeological practice, Métis archaeology, and indigenous archaeology in the post-TRC era.

Jane Eva Baxter, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Depaul University in Chicago, IL. She is a teaching professor and a researcher with longstanding research interests in the archaeology of childhood, gender, labor, and identity. She is the author of 3 books, editor/co-editor of 3 volumes, and the author/co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed book chapters and articles.

Natasha Lyons, PhD, is a founding partner of Ursus Heritage Consulting and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University. Natasha mconducts collaborative, community-based research with First Nations throughout Western Canada and the Inuvialuit of the Canadian Western Arctic. She practices and publishes widely on critical community archaeology, ethical research practice, digital representation, and palaeoethnobotany. She sees an archaeology of heart, and heart-centered practice more generally, as an important way forward in research and contemporary life.

Sonya Atalay (Anishinaabe-Ojibwe) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She works in engaged anthropology, utilizing community-based participatory methods to conduct research in full partnership with indigenous communities. Dr. Atalay’s scholarship crosses disciplinary boundaries, incorporating aspects of cultural anthropology, archaeology, critical heritage studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies. She’s co-author of ‘NAGPRA Comics’, a series of research-based graphic narratives about repatriation. Centering Anishinaabe epistemologies and concepts of well-being, Dr. Atalay is working on a series of land-based collaborative projects that involve intergenerational indigenous knowledge production and knowledge mobilization practices.