Convenors
Kofi Agorsah, Ph.D
Black Studies Program
Portland State University
Terrence W. Epperson, Ph.D.
This symposium will provide a global perspective on the archaeology of theAfrican Diaspora, including contributions from scholars working in African,Caribbean, North American, Latin American, and maritime contexts. The centerpiece of this symposium will be a series of papers presenting theresults of ongoing research and analysis of the African Burial Ground in NewYork City, a project that utilizes an explicitly Diasporic and comparative perspective.
Although addressing a wide range of spatial and temporal contexts, this session is united by several basic themes. The participants realize that theinvoluntary migration and subsequent exploitation of African-derived populations throughout the globe was intimately connected with the construction and imposition of “race” as a purportedly natural category andwith the elaboration of Euro-centric and white supremacist historical narratives. Therefore, any politically- and socially-responsive archaeology must constantly challenge these legacies. Although slave traders and slaveholders made every effort strip enslaved Africans and their descendantsof their common humanity and distinctive cultural identities, these efforts were met with sustained cultural and political resistance, some of which was not understood as such by the oppressors. Therefore, African Diaspora archaeology must be particularly sensitive to evidence of subtle, covert formsof resistance. The participants in this session also know that there is no such thing as non-political, value-free archaeology. Practitioners must examine and acknowledge the theoretical assumptions and underpinnings of their research as well as the social and political consequences of that work. The session participants realize that their research exists in a dialecticalrelationship with the concerns and needs of the living descendant communities.They therefore reject the purported disjuncture between research andcontemporary social context and embrace their accountability to the descendantcommunities. Because the African Diaspora was (and continues to be) a globalphenomenon, the contributors to this session realize that no part can be understood in isolation. Therefore, this session is intended to foster ahigher level of understanding, cooperation, and goodwill between Africa Diaspora investigators throughout the world.
papers:
Author 1 Author 2 Title
Agorsah Archaeological implications of African burial systems for reconstructing the heritage of the African Diaspora
Blakey et al Biohistorical approaches to the health and demography of Africans in Colonial times s058blk1
Bredwa-Mensah Archaeology of Slavery In West Africa s058brd
Delle The Baptist church and the making of Free Jamaica
Epperson The global importance of African Diaspora archaeology in the analysis and abolition of whitness s058ppr1
Fomin Slavery artefacts in African history: Case study of the remains of slavery objects and fossils in Cameroon
Haviser African Sites archaeology on Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
Howson Green Medford African agency and colonial practice in the 18th Century British Empire
Mack