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Saving Indigenous Peoples from Ourselves: Separate but Equal Archaeology is not Scientific Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael Wilcox
Michael Wilcox*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall Building 360, Stanford, CA 94305-2032
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Abstract

In his recent article “Aboriginalism and the Problems of Indigenous Archaeology,” Robert McGhee questions the intellectual viability of Indigenous Archaeology as well as the contributions of Indigenous Peoples within the field of archaeology. Further, the author challenges the very notion of Indigeneity and characterizes Indigenous and scientific perspectives as mutually incompatible. I argue that the author's solution of “separate but equal” domains for scientific vs. Indigenous archaeologies misrepresents both science and Indigeneity as homogenous entities, affirms these positions as inherently dichotomized and invites comparison to some of the troubling philosophical legacies of racial segregation.

Resumen

Resumen

En un reciente articulo “Aboriginalism and the Problems of Indigenous Archaeology” Robert McGhee critica tanto la viabilidad intelectual de la arqueología indígena como las contribuciones hechas por sus proponentes dentro de la disciplina. Más aún, este autor pone en cuestionamiento la noción misma de indigeneidad, caracterizando esta perspectiva como mutuamente excluyente e incompatible con aquella postulada por la ciencia. Sostengo que la propuesta de este autor, que distinguiendo una arqueologia cientifica vs. otra indígena y planteando espacios “separados pero iguales” para ambas, incurre en una distorción de ciencia e indigenidad representandolas como entidades homogéneas e intrinsicamente dicotómicas lo cual invita a compararla con algunos de los legados filosóficos de segregación racial más controversiales.

Type
Forum
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 221 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2010

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