A Plurality Of Pluralisms: Collaborative Practice In Archaeology

Innovative modes of collaborative practice are transforming archaeology, in the process generating examples of methodological and conceptual pluralism that are proving to be powerful catalysts for creative insight. What I have in mind are not the interdisciplinary collaborations that have long been a staple of archaeological inquiry but, rather, intellectual as well as pragmatic partnerships with descendant communities, especially Aboriginal and Indigenous communities. While the impetus for these collaborations is often, in the first instance, moral and political – they arise from demands for respect, reciprocity, consultation – increasingly they are also robustly epistemic. Descendant communities and archaeologists jointly define the research agenda and pursue programs of historical, archaeological inquiry together, sometimes bringing strikingly different conceptual schemes and methodologies to bear on questions of common concern.