The Archaeology of Ethnicity in America: Syllabus

A/S 289: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ETHNICITY IN AMERICA

Spring 2003 / Class Calendar / E. Brumfiel

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This course explores the history of different ethnic groups in America through the study of their material remains: living quarters, burials, food remains, tools, jewelry, etc. We also examine how ethnic groups have been portrayed or ignored in museum displays that claim to depict the American past. Groups studied include Native Americans, African Americans, and Chinese Americans. Class projects include the study of artifacts and ethnic groups in the city of Albion. This is a good class for students considering careers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies, education, and history.

The major questions in this course are:

1) What is ethnicity and where does it come from?
2) How has archaeology been used as a social weapon?
3) What is the experience of ethnic and racial minorities in the United States? What can archaeology add to that history?
4) How can archaeologists collaborate successfully with members of descendant communities?

How to Contact Me

My office is 309 Rob Hall. My office hours are Monday 3-4 and Thursday 2-3:30. I'd also
be glad to see you at other times by appointment. Or send me an email; my name is
ebrumfiel.

Learning Disabilities

Any student in the course who has a disability that may prevent the fullest demonstration of abilities should contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss accommodations to ensure full participation and educational opportunity.

Writing Laboratory

The Writing Center invites students to visit for feedback on papers, for advice and tips on writing in all your courses, and for guidance on special writing tasks. Appointments and drop-in tutoring are available. For more information, contact the Writing Center at 0828, or stop by 309 Seeley Mudd during their open hours: Monday-Thursday from 1:00-4:00 PM, and Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings from 7:00-9:00 PM.

Course Requirements

1) Two 2-3 page response papers (each worth 5% of your grade)

2) Two hourly tests (each worth 15% of your grade)

3) Team project (20% of your grade)

4) Final exam (20% of your grade)

5) Class attendance, participation and reading notes (20% of your grade). Reading notes
should, minimally, identify:
(a) The central issue or question raised in the article
(b) The author's position on this issue
(c) The supporting evidence provided by the author
(d) What this article contributed to your understanding of the major questions in this
course, or why you disagree with part or all of the claims made in the article.

Required Texts

Deetz, James
1977 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Doubleday, New York.

Ferguson, Leland
1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Thomas, David Hurst
2000 Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity. Basic Books, New York (course pack of articles, on sale at the book store. One copy will be on reserve at library).

N.B.: Articles in the course pack are marked (cp). Articles on electronic reserve are marked (er).

PLEASE TRY TO COMPLETE THE READING ASSIGNMENTS BEFORE THE DATES LISTED.

Jan. 13 Introduction to the Course

Jan. 15 Why Do Historical Archaeology?
Reading: Wallace, "Visiting the Past" (cp)

Jan. 17 The Archaeological Imagination I
Reading: Deetz, pp. 1-37, 58-88

Jan. 22 The Archaeological Imagination II: Class Exercise
Reading: Deetz, pp. 89-100, 125-164

Jan. 23 Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation 11:10 a.m., Goodrich Chapel

Jan. 24 Video: "Other People's Garbage"

Jan. 27 What is Ethnicity? Affiliation
Reading: Barth, "Introduction" (cp)

Jan. 29 What is Ethnicity? Affiliation and Attribution
Reading: McGuire, "The Study of Ethnicity in Historical Archaeology" (cp)

Jan. 31 Material Culture and Ethnicity: Ethnic Markers
Reading: Deetz, pp. 187-211.

Feb. 3 Material Culture and Ethnicity: Alternative Views
Reading: Rogers, "Tribes as Heterarchy" (er)

Feb. 5 The Social Construction of Whiteness
Readings: Warner, "Experiencing Ethnicity" (er); Horning, "In Search of a 'Hollow Ethnicity'"

Feb. 7 Video: "Skin Deep"

Feb. 10 Race in American Society and Culture: Discussion of "Skin Deep"

Feb. 12 An Ethnic History of Albion: Native American Life

Feb. 14 An Ethnic History of Albion: 19th and 20th Centuries
Reading: McGuire, "Dialogues with the Dead" (cp)

Feb. 15 SATURDAY FIELD TRIP, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, 11:00 AM

Feb. 17 Due: First response paper: Material Culture and Ethnicity at Riverside Cemetery

Feb. 19 FIRST EXAM

Feb. 21 Recovering the African American Past: Video: "Digging for Slaves"
Reading: Ferguson, Introduction and pp. 1-62

Feb. 24 Recovering the African American Past
Reading: Ferguson, pp. 63-123

Feb. 26 Recovering the African American Past: What Does Archaeology Contribute?
Reading: Wilkie, "Magic and Empowerment on the Plantation" (cp)

Feb. 28 Video: "Williamsburg Restored"
Readings: Blakey, "American Nationality and Ethnicity in the Depicted Past" (cp); Martin, "Colonial Williamsburg—A Black Perspective" (cp)

Mar. 3 Museums and Ethnic Politics: Discussion
Reading: Handler, "Ethnicity in the Museum" (er)

Mar. 5 African Burial Ground Controversy
Part One: The Legal Basis of Historic Preservation
Reading: Harrington, "Bones and Bureaucrats" (cp)
Part Two
Reading: LaRoche and Blakey, "Seizing Intellectual Power. . ." (cp)

Mar. 7 Race as Biology and Race as Cultural Construction
Blakey, "Bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora…" (print your own copy at: http://anthro.annualreviews.org/cgi/reprint/30/1/387.pdf).

Mar. 17 Archaeology as Critique I
Reading: Leone, Mullins et al., "Can an African-American Historical Archaeology...." (cp)

Mar. 19 Archaeology as Critique II
Reading: Williams, "A River Runs Through Us" (er)

Mar. 21 Collaborating to Construct the Past
Reading: McDavid, "Descendants, Decisions, and Power" (cp)

Mar. 24 Collaborating to Construct the Past
Guest lecture: Paul Mullins, Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis, "African American Archaeology in Indianapolis."
Reading: Mullins, "Material and Symbolic Racism in Consumer Space" (cp)

Mar. 26 Archaeology and Ethnic Politics: Archaeology in the Nineteenth Century
Reading: Thomas, Chapters 1-10

Mar. 28 The Kennewick Man and the Reburial Debate
Video: 60 Minutes, October 25, 1998: "Kennewick Man"
Reading: Thomas, Chapters 11-19

Mar. 28 & 29 31st ANNUAL ANN ARBOR POWWOW—CRISLER ARENA

Mar. 31 Archaeology and Ethnic Politics: Archaeology in the 20th Century
Reading: Thomas, Chapters 20-Epilogue
Guest lecture: Dale Anderson, NAGPRA officer, Huron Band Potawatomi, "NAGPRA in Michigan."

Apl. 2 The NAGPRA Debate
Reading: Meighan "The Burial of American Archaeology" (cp)

Apl. 4 Narrative in the Archaeology of Native North America
Reading: Keene and Chilton, "Toward an Archaeology of the Pocumtuck" (er)

Apl. 7 Narrative in the Archaeology of Native North America: Spiritual Inhabitation
Reading: Echo-Hawk, "Native Americans and Archaeologists" (cp)

Apl. 9 Narrative in the Archaeology of Native North America: Contact and Resistance
Reading: Rubertone, "Archaeology, Colonialism and 17th-Century Native America" (cp)

Apl. 11 SECOND EXAM

Apl. 14 Narrative in the Archaeology of Native North America: Native Voices I
Readings: Dongoske, et al., "Archaeological Cultures and Cultural Affiliation" (cp)
Staeck, "Echoing the Past" (cp)

Apl. 16 Narrative in the Archaeology of Native North America: Native Voices II: Synthetic Narratives

Apl. 18 Museums and Ethnic Politics

Apl. 19 SATURDAY FIELD TRIP, Gardner House Museum, 11:00AM

Apl. 21 Due: Second response paper: Museums and Ethnic Politics at the Gardner House Museum

Apl. 23 Museums and Ethnic Politics: The Role of the Local History Museum
Erikson, "A-Whaling We Will Go" (er)

Apl. 25 Movie: "A Place in Time"

Apl. 28 The Archaeology of Chinese Americans: student presentations
Reading: Chapter of your choice in Wegars, Hidden Heritage
(on reserve at the circulation desk of the library).

Apl. 30 Team Projects: student presentations

MAY 5 FINAL EXAM, MONDAY, 11:30 A.M.-1:30 P.M.

Bibliography

Barth, Fredrik
1969 Introduction. In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference, edited by Fredrik Barth, pp. 9-38. Little, Brown, and Company, Boston.

Blakey, Michael L.
1990 American Nationality and Ethnicity in the Depicted Past. In The Politics of the Past, edited by Peter Gathercole and David Lowenthal, pp. 38-48. Unwin Hyman, London.

2001 Bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas: Its Origins and Scope. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:387-422. Electronic document available at http://anthro.annualreviews.org/cgi/reprint/30/1/387.pdf.

Deetz, James
1977 In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. Doubleday, New York.

Dongoske, Kurt E., Michael Yeatts, Roger Anyon, and T. J. Ferguson
1997 1997 Archaeological Cultures and Cultural Affiliation: Hopi and Zuni Perspectives in the American Southwest. American Antiquity 62:600-608.

Echo-Hawk, Roger
19978 Forging a New Ancient History for Native America. In Native Americans and Archaeologists: Stepping Stones to Common Ground, edited by Nina Swidler, Kurt E. Dongoske, Roger Anyon, and Alan S. Downer, pp. 88-102. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Erikson, P. P.
1999 A-Whaling We Will Go. Cultural Anthropology 14:556-583.

Ferguson, Leland
1992 Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Handler, Richard
1989 Ethnicity in the Museum. In Negotiating Ethnicity: The Impact of Anthropological Theory and Practice, edited by Susan Emley Keefe, pp. 19-26. NAPA Bulletin No. 8. American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.

Harrington, Spencer P.M.
1993 Bones and Bureaucrats. Archaeology 46(2):28-38.

Horning, Audrey J.
1999 In Search of a "Hollow Ethnicity": Archaeological Explorations of Rural Mountain Settlement. In Historical Archaeology, Identity Formation, and the Interpretation of Ethnicity, edited by Maria Franklin and Garrett Fesler, pp. 121-137. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Richmond, Virginia.

Keene, Arthur S., and Elizabeth Chilton
1995 Toward an Archaeology of the Pocumtuck Homeland. Paper presented at the 1995 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.

LaRoche, Cheryl J. and Michael Blakey
1997 Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3):84-106.

Leone, Mark P., Paul R. Mullins, Marian C. Creveling, Laurence Hurst, Barbara Jackson-Nash, Lynn D. Jones, Hannah Jopling Kaiser, George C. Logan, and Mark S. Warner
1995 Can an African-American Historical Archaeology be an Alternative Voice?" In Interpreting Archaeology: Finding Meaning in the Past, edited by Ian Hodder, Michael Shanks, Alexandra Alexandri, Victor Buchli, John Carman, Jonathan Last, and Gavin Lucas, pp. 110-124. Routledge, London.

Martin, Zora
1973 Colonial Williamsburg—A Black Perspective. Journal of Museum Education: Roundtable Reports, June issue.

McDavid, Carol
1997 Descendants, Decisions, and Power: The Public Interpretation of the Archaeology of the Levi Jordan Plantation. Historical Archaeology 31(3):114-31.

McDonald, J. Douglas, L. J. Zimmerman, A. L. McDonald, William Tall Bull, and Ted Rising Sun
1991 The Northern Cheyenne Outbreak of 1879. In The Archaeology of Inequality, edited by Randall H. McGuire and Robert Paynter, pp. 64-78. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

McGuire, Randall H.
1982 The Study of Ethnicity in Historical Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1:159-178.

1988 Dialogues With the Dead: Ideology and the Cemetery. In The Recovery of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States, edited by Mark P. Leone and Parker B. Potter, Jr., pp. 435-480. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Meighan, Clement W.
1993 The Burial of American Archaeology. Academic Questions 6(3):9-19.

Mullins, Paul R.
1999 Material and Symbolic Racism in Consumer Space. Chapter 3, pp. 41-77, in Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.

Rogers, Rhea J.
1995 Tribes as Heterarchy. In Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies, edited by Robert M. Ehrenreich, Carole L. Crumley, and Janet E. Levy, pp. 7-16. American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.

Rubertone, Patricia E.
1989 Archaeology, Colonialism and 17th-Century Native America. In Conflict in the Archaeology of Living Traditions, edited by Robert Layton, pp. 32-45. Unwin Hyman, London.

Staeck, John P.
2000 Echoing the Past. In Interpretations of Native North American Life: Material Contributions to Ethnohistory, edited by Michael S. Nassaney and Eric S. Johnson, pp. 88-117. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.

Thomas, David Hurst
2000 Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity. Basic Books, New York.

Wallace, Michael
1986 Visiting the Past: History Museums in the United States. In Presenting the Past: Essays on History and the Public, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig. pp. 137-161. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Warner, Mark
2001 Collective Otherness?: African American and Indian Responses to White America. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.

2001 Experiencing Ethnicity: The Interplay of Minority Identity and Material Culture. Paper presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.

Wegars, Priscilla (editor)
1992 Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese. Baywood Publishing, Amityville, New York.

Wilkie, Laurie A.
1995 Magic and Empowerment on the Plantation: An Archaeological Consideration of African-American World View. Southeastern Archaeology 14:136-148.

Williams, Brett
2001 A River Runs Through Us. American Anthropologist 103:409-431.