Burarra Gathering: Sharing Indigenous Knowledge

Posted on by
Reply

Burarra Gathering is an online project authored by Questacon, Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre. At its physical location in Canberra, Questacon provides public exhibitions that promote greater awareness of science and technology within the community, emphasizing fun and hands-on experience. One of their outreach projects is Burarra Gathering, an interactive online exhibition (based on a physical one by the same name) that brings users on a virtual trip to the land of the Burarra people. The creators wanted to explore the significance of Indigenous technologies, and were intend upon making the exhibit ‘collaborative’ with the Burarra people of northern Arnhem Land.

The exhibit does an interesting job of presenting the intersection of Indigenous and ‘mainstream’ cultures. Our virtual host, a teenage boy named Danaja, is depicted wearing a brightly colored jersey and shorts, next to his grandfather in muted colors and a scruffy beard. Both guiding characters introduce the viewer to choice vocabulary of the Burarra language, and demonstrate usage of ‘traditional’ technologies like trapping fish, navigating a boat, understanding seasons, making fire with sticks, and tracking animals. Everything is animated, which perhaps appeals to their younger target audience, but also prevents any sense of real ‘intimacy’ with artifacts.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the online exhibit is the ‘permit application.’ Aboriginal land in Australia is privately owned, and you must be an invited guest to be issued a permit to visit. Danaja presents a postcard inviting us to visit the Burarra people, then asks that the user inputs their name into a simplified version of a permit application. The permit explains the importance of protecting the privacy, culture, and environment of Aboriginal communities.

The interface is not the smoothest by today’s standards, but the site could definitely be interesting and informative in classroom settings. Questacon says that Burarra Gathering has been successful because it shows that indigenous knowledge can be presented in engaging ways, and it helped cultivate a close relationship between Questacon and a remote Burarra community. They also say that it has inspired future creation of more projects that allow Indigenous communities to tell their stories online.

Review: The British Sloop Industry Online Exhibition

Posted on by
Reply

I looked at the the British Sloop Industry Exhibit from the Underwater Archaeology Museum. The authors, Chuck Meide (Director, Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program) and Sam Turner (Director of Archaeology, LAMP) identify themselves in the introduction and provide a list of acknowledgments on the credits page (which is, perhaps significantly, a separate page.) The webmaster, T. Kurt Knoerl, is listed at the bottom of the page. In the pictures that follow, none of the people are identified by name (attention is paid to the artifact or process being depicted), nor are the photographers identified. Self-erasure from the record is not the most reflexive method, even if a crew list is provided in the credits.

The introduction provides a historical context concerning Industry’s activities before it embedded itself in a sandbar in St. Augustine’s Harbor in 1764 (St. Augustine being, unfortunately, the sloop’s final destination), and the ship’s subsequent discovery by Southern Oceans Archaeological Research, Inc. in 1997.  The historical background gives a strong narrative of “discovering” and “colonization”, and mention of indigenous settlements is peripheral. This surprised me, as one panicky primary source reported that the beached ship (heavy with artillery and weapons) had been ransacked by Timucuan Indians, such that locals were now fearing all-out warfare. Certainly this is significant! “Today there are no known Native Americans who call themselves Timucuan”, but there must be ways to delve back into the record (archaeological or historical) to integrate that part of the story.

The methodology section provides an interesting account of how looting changes the archaeological process (but in an oddly disaffected way) and includes original surveys, but the jargon is not always explained. The findings section does not contain a full catalogue (a link to a dissertation on Industry provides a larger report), but each item is accompanied by a description, pictures, and historical context, making it the easiest to understand. However, this setup exactly mirrors what one might encounter in a museum, so I am not entirely sure what the online experience “adds” (other than helpful links to said dissertation and LAMP’s website, which are indeed helpful to have as immediate resources.)

SOAR worked to engage the general public through articles, high school internships (providing students with generalized training in nautical studies, museum practice, and public interpretation as well), television segments, and public talks. A section titled “Conservation” shows schoolchildren around a cannon submerged in a tank of water, speaking to the conservation of artifacts as well as public interest.

Viktor Deak and Visual Science

Posted on by
Reply

Per this week’s readings on the power of visuals, I thought I’d post something about paleoartist Viktor Deak:

Homo rudolfensis, Viktor Deak

Deak has created innumerable models of early humans for museums around the world, and has been featured in NOVA’s human origins documentary, Becoming Human. He works with sculpture and digital imaging, often combining mediums to get the hyper-realism he desires (e.g. taking a picture of a sculpture and then photo-editing in minor details). His computer models have also been used to as starting points for simulating the movements of the specimens in question. Deak always begins his work by examining the physical fossil remains, then works his way upwards from a cast of the fossils, laying on muscle structure, cartilage, and finishing up with skin, eyes, and hair. He defines his work as inherently grounded in science: “If there’s no science to begin with, we unfortunately don’t get to do any art.” (New York Times, Envisioning Our Distant Past, 2009)*

However, just from his murals and landscapes (such as the series “Lucy’s World”), it is evident see that human origins as a concept captured Deak’s imagination in a thoroughly un-scientific way, and this (though, far be it from me to pass judgment) is a good thing. In this sense, Deak’s work connects back to our discussion of the power of creative agency and imagination in creating formative epistemologies, even if the modes of learning we are discussing are purely visual. You can’t hypothesize about what something looks like unless you know how to hypothesize (that is, imagine) what something might look like. As colonized archaeology takes away the ability to create new trains of logic from material evidence by limiting the archaeologist’s scope before they even get to the dig, science that is grounded in reiteration and rearticulation without imagination is inevitably a regurgitation of the same information. Thus, imagination becomes a mode of “enskilment”. (Perry 2009)

Neandertals, Viktor Deak

Deak’s own fascination with his subject material is telling in regard to the ways museum practice and archaeological displays capture the hearts and imagination of the public: “Once the eyes are in the face and there’s a face on that thing, I feel as if there’s a chasm of time that’s eliminated. I wish I could travel in time to look at these things, but I can’t. [recall Bolter and Grosin’s discussions of immediacy] So the best thing I can do is to try to bring them to us.” (NOVA, Building Faces From Fossils, 2009; embedded below)**

[media id=1 width=600 height=440]

*If you choose to watch this interview, be forewarned of the New York Times’ choice of a didgeridoo for representing a “pre-modern human ambiance”.

**Come to think of it, this soundtrack is pretty jarring as well.

Review: NPS Archaeology Exhibit

Posted on by
Reply

The National Park Service’s Archaeology Program hosts a series of online archaeology exhibits, one of which is called The Earliest Americans.The Exhibit's Home Screen. The exhibit’s home screen has a sidebar with a list of subheadings containing links- the first two of which focus on archaeologists and archaeology as a discipline.  These hypermediate the exhibit as constructed, as the bearer of praxis and not just pure information. According to the first of these subheadings, the exhibit was inspired by a Harris poll that assessed the American public’s understanding of archaeology and attempts to move the public’s conception of archaeology away from archaeology and toward an understanding of publicly funded archaeology. The second subheading acknowledges past misrepresentations of early inhabitants of America and discusses the nomination of new National Historic landmarks. Three more subheadings divide the nation into the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. These subheadings begin with a migratory narrative of the prehistoric people in the area then have further panels focusing on archaeological and geological conclusions about the area and artifacts.

Each subheading can be converted into a Word document, which betrays the exhibitors’ conception of the exhibit as closer to a book than a museum experience- though links allow the audience to explore under self-direction, there is no video or interactive programming, so text is the dominant medium.

The exhibit is as much about archaeology as it is about early American inhabitants. Photos of archaeologists at work juxtaposed with artist’s interpretations of prehistoric scenes encourage the audience to engage with the text as a product.  Links allow the interested reader to engage deeper with the scholars by reading the study on which it was based. However, this reflexive attempt is mitigated by the fact that the exhibit is almost entirely lacking a female perspective: though one female archaeologist is portrayed in a photograph, the illustrations show only male figures and the narratives are either male-centered or genderless.

Museums and Communities

Posted on by
Reply

This week our discussion focused on the relationship between Museums and their communities, addressing the key themes of the readings, minority criticisms of the museum, the changes and different approaches that have arisen from their demands, including the founding of community and tribal museums, and the issues that must still be addressed in the future.

The most important idea that ran throughout the readings this week was the desire of native communities to take control of the ownership and representation of their heritage, and to bring the idea of ownership to the general public’s attention. While Clifford describes how, at the Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Centre, each label contains the phrase ‘owned by’ followed by an individual’s name, Atalay criticizes the NMAI’s exhibition for failing to mention the issues of “cultural and intellectual property rights” and give viewers the opportunity to engage with issues such as “who has the right to control, utilize and profit from Indigenous knowledge, symbols [and] images” (Atalay, 608). These examples, however raised the tricky questions of the ownership and repatriation of rare and precious artifacts. Should scholars and museums give back ownership of objects that they have the means to better preserve for the future, or objects that, through analysis, have the possibility to provide valuable information? Another common theme was the importance of collaboration with Native communities at every stage of the process, in order to create exhibits that counter stereotypes and are relevant and beneficial to the community’s needs. The readings also discuss the importance of highlighting contemporary issues facing indigenous communities, in order to show the public that these are not static, unchanged cultures, but active ones that are both producing new things in art and culture and facing the issue of survival.

In order to fully understand the importance of museum representation, and the criticisms of museums that arose to fight for representation, one must realize the power of the museum as an instrument of civil society. Karp discusses the power a museum has to construct knowledge, provide the public with a certain set of cultural values and define the ideal citizen, which easily excludes groups who do not fit that image. With the catalyst of the civil rights movement, minority groups began to fight for better representation, arguing that museums had an all white staff, served a cultural elite and followed a Western-based knowledge approach that excluded minority perspectives and stories.

As minority groups began to voice these ideas through picketing, demonstration, establishing coalitions, and even vandalism, museums began to focus on their responsibility to their communities. Changes began to occur in subject matter, the exhibition planning process and the variety of activities museums offered. Museums established advisory boards, complied of individuals from the cultural groups they are representing, to aid and approve exhibitions, and have often turned them into permanent consultative positions. One of the most challenging questions of our discussion, however, was if this advisory involvement is enough, or if these boards are merely token positions. While this is definitely a good step, I think that there is more that can be done, in both changing the structure of the museum, and in educating and providing opportunities in the museum field for minority students. While there has been an increased interest in visitor feedback, with the installation of focus groups and comment books, and community outreach and education, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art helping provide ten Latino students with paid internships in the museum field, and many other museums, especially those in urban areas stressing the importance of the “education and vocational training of young people,” and creating mentor-ship programs for students (Simpson), still more can be done.

Another major issue we discussed is how museums address controversial issues. How far does one go in exposing the truth in an exhibition? Atalay’s major criticism of the NMAI is that they did not go far enough in the presentations of the guns and bibles, which were instruments of oppression and horror. Atalay claims that “there can be no stories of survivance without an understanding of the extreme struggle and survival in the face of horrific circumstance,” arguing that the full gory context must be provided in order for viewers to fully understand Native American survivance (Atalay, 610). In this decision of how revolutionary to make an exhibition, however, the curators hope to be offend as little of their audience as possible. Simpson states that the curator tread[s] a tightrope between offending one sector of the community or another: for no matter how warranted a revisionist approach may be, it almost certainly cannot fail to offend those who prefer the nostalgia and glories of heroic myths to the realities of the past,” highlighting how even within one cultural group, it is very difficult to make everyone happy, much less dealing with an entire diverse public. Thus controversy often arises when a museum challenges a popular belief or national ideology, or when there is a misinterpretation of the exhibit’s mission. Simpson believes such issues can can be avoided by clearly stating one’s objectives, close collaboration with native communities, creating open places for discussion, and using vandalism as a starting point for dialog and bringing difficult issues to the public’s attention.

Finally, we discussed the development of community and tribal museums as spaces for communities to take control of the representation of their cultures, to house community activities and to promote their culture. In contrast with cosmopolitan, majority museums, tribal museums challenge the idea of a unified, linear national history, focusing instead on the importance of family relationships and local narratives. Even these community spaces, however, may not be as open as they seem, as certain communities may be given preference over others, and exhibits may not be rotated as often as they proclaim.

Thus, while great strides have been by museums to connect to their public, there are still many issues they must address in the future, including indigenous ownership, minority involvement in the planning process, establishing long term relationships with diverse communities, dismantling their Eurocentric approach, including multiple perspectives, and daring to expose the truth of the colonial past.

Highway to the Past: The Archaeology of the Central Artery Project–A Review.

Posted on by
Reply

The online archaeology exhibit, “Highway to the Past: The Archaeology of the Central Artery Project,” was created by “an intern from Northeastern University.” Though it would be preferable to know the name of this intern, the website was part of an archaeological project conducted by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which lends it some legitimacy. That is, assuming the intern was actually working for the Commission. Knowing the author of a site can give the viewer an idea of the perspective the author is presenting a topic from, and may suggest possible biases. It can also help the reader decide whether or not the author can be trusted as an expert on their subject.  Here, it is a bit ambiguous.

This exhibit does a good job clearly and concisely explaining the context of the archaeological finds and what the objects are. There are also many pictures of the sites, the excavation process, and the artifacts. Only one of the sites in the archaeological project (which was done over a large area before the construction of a major highway in Boston) was described as a Native American site. Interestingly, unlike the other sites, which were fairly precisely dated (from the 1600s to 1900s), this site was given no date—not even an estimate. Perhaps we are expected to assume the site is from pre-Colombian times? Not including even a general date sort of puts the Native American site in a timeless space, which is both weird and inaccurate. Also, there is no mention of any Native Americans in any of the other sites, as if they did not and do not exist in more recent times, alongside the colonizers and their descendants. The website also does not provide much analysis for the reader as to the meanings of the artifacts. On the Native American site page, they merely provide a list of artifacts and encourage the reader to guess “what kind of activities” the Native Americans carried out there. There is no mention of which specific tribe or group might have used the site, which, along with not giving a time period, doesn’t help contest the image many people have of all Native American groups being basically the same. There is no use of any line of evidence besides the artifacts presented for people to guess what went on at the site.

Overall, the site is a pretty intuitive experience, and a good, if simple, use of the Internet as a medium for presenting archaeology. It uses a map of the general area of the sites as the basis for navigation, so that each page takes you to a new archaeological site. The overall purpose of the site seemed to be to educate the general public about how archaeology can uncover interesting windows into the past, even while progress is being made in the present (with the construction of the new highway). As might be expected with a large, urban governmental construction project, there is no evidence that any local people or descendants of the sites excavated were involved in any of the process.

Blogging Archaeology

Posted on by
Reply

For this assignment, I viewed a number of archaeology blogs to understand the goals of blogging archaeology and how these authors reach out to their audience. Overall, I found that the most effective and engaging blogs were the ones that were the most personal. For me, the blogs that discussed the author’s opinions about archaeology and their own research projects were the most exciting. Two blogs that definitely captured my interest were Terry Peterkin Brock’s blog, “Dirt,” and Mick Morrison’s blog, “Mick Morrison: Archaeology and Heritage in Australia.”

Mick Morrison is a professor at Flinders University in Adelaide. He is an archaeologist with a background in cultural heritage management, focused largely in northeast Australia.  Morrison began his blog in 2009 hoping to encourage a greater representation of Australian Archaeologist bloggers on the internet.  He only posts about fifteen to twenty times a year, but his updates are interesting and diverse, ranging from discussing his experiences in the field to writing grant proposals.  His posts are generally comprised of text along with images that work together to make the piece complete.  Morrison allows his audience a window into his life as an archaeologist in Australia through his blog.  I also really appreciate Morrison’s eagerness to engage with his audience to have an open dialogue about archaeology.

 

Terry Peterkin Brock is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Michigan State University.  He is interested in historical archaeology especially in Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland.  His blog serves as a space for him to discuss and write about a number of topics that interest him related to archaeology ranging from the inclusion of his dissertation project on slavery to issues relating to gender violence and sexual assault prevention.  Brock often discusses the use of blogging and multimedia in relation to archaeology, which I found very interesting.  He not only discusses his own personal experiences with blogging and Twitter but also brings the opinions of others into his posts.  Using links within his posts to other articles allows for the audience to look up a topic that Brock mentioned but did not fully explain, giving the reader an opportunity to really get a handle of the discussion at hand.  Brock’s use of other multimedia, internet resources, and images, adds to the accessibility and depth of his posts and site overall.  His posts are also very interesting as he often points out how archaeology is relevant to a number of current events.  Discussing the changes in the internet realm with Twitter, blogging, etc… also gives that audience the opportunity to see how Brock is adapting to these changes to continue and improve his discussions of archaeology.  One of my favorite posts was about advice about digging during the winter time.  He gives advice about what clothes to wear and how to stay warm.  My favorite advice for digging in the cold: Grow a beard.  “For those of you genetically pre-determined to be able to grow facial hair, get on it.”  He adds humor to his page and gives it a personal feel while still maintaining his goals of creating an accessible space to learn about and discuss archaeology.

Blogging Archaeology

Posted on by
Reply

The Bamburgh Research Project’s Blog is a blog dedicated to “bringing the past to life for everyone” by documenting and sharing the archaeology of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, England. During the excavation season, updates focus on the aforementioned castle, during the off-season the focus shifts to proximal projects like Bradford Kaims Wetland Heritage Research Project. The blog is authored by the collective forces behind the Bamburgh Research Project (BRP) and a link to the organization’s formal website identifies the bloggers as staff and students. The blog is targeted towards locals, those with a cursory interest in the project (or archaeology as a whole), and potential volunteers. There are a copious amount of entries, and while there are not very many comments, the blog’s counter indicates that the BRP Blog currently has 411 followers (and keep in mind, those followers are only those who have a blogging account, enabling them to formally register their followership.) I found the blog’s set up very accessible and engaging, providing fairly detailed methodology and historical context for those who desire it (with links to even more thorough end-of-season reports), while peppering entries with maps and photos. In between site reports, bloggers answer questions from readers, write entries about relevant topics that interest them, and explore the history of the site. I imagine theirs is more of a silent readership, perhaps older, that enjoys the constant stream of informative content.

I include Sídhe Screamed because of its mosaic approach to archaeology, and because it is authored by a college student (from the University of Illinois-Chicago, I might add, lest I be accused of shameless self-promotion.) The author, Cameron Sídhe, a Poetry major with a minor in Anthropology, summarizes his blog as “Neolithic Scotland. Outer Hebrides. Archaeology. Mythology. Biology. Pathology. Photography. Anything-that-catches-my-fancyology.” It is this eclectic approach, I believe, that makes his blog so accessible. His entries consist of “reblogged” international archaeology articles and artifact-, excavation site- or paleopathology-themed photographs. As this is a tumblr blog, public interest is gauged by the amount of “notes” on each entry; a quick survey of Sídhe Screamed shows that Sídhe’s entries are never without notes (both articles and photos), indicating an active and engaged readership. While entries range from the quirky to the paleobotanical, I found that the switches between light/somber, visually attractive/textually informative kept me reading Sídhe Screamed much longer than the BRP’s blog. Thus, I would argue that this blog—while not the most academic—successfully generates a public/”mainstream”/far-reaching appreciation for the aesthetic of archaeology and historical exploration, and public interest is a most excellent starting point for public engagement.

Archaeology and Technology at Vassar

Posted on by
Reply

The above video is an excerpt from a short film made by Vassar students about the use of HP Tablet PCs in field-based classes. The full film can be found here.

Professor Johnson talks about using the tablets to prevent the degradation of data- critical and post-processual archaeology place much emphasis on how the archaeologist influences conclusions and interpretations of field data, but Johnson makes a good point in reminding us that the archaeologists’ first influence on the creation of knowledge happens in the field, during the copying out of data. Field methods have as much room for improvement as methods of thought and methods of collaboration or consultation.

Archaeology Blogs

Posted on by
Reply

Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives is a blog by Rosemary Joyce, based on her book of the same title. She is an anthropology professor at UC Berkeley with a PhD in anthropology. The detailed list of her past education, work experiences and publications, in the “About Me” section gives her great authority in this area, and situates her research within a context. Joyce is very interested in collaborative work and her blog is intended to analyze how gender and sex are materialized within the archaeological record. Though heavily focused on women, her audience appears evenly split between men and women, and is targeted at the general public, students interested in her research, and fellow colleagues. Her stories inform readers on a wide range of topics, from Ancient Roman brothels to Neanderthal-Human sexual relations to erotic motifs on seventeenth century Chinese vases, and each have a captivating title that hooks the reader without misrepresenting the story, such as “Bone Deep: Sex and the Skeleton,” or Evolution as Fight Club.” Her posts are written in a very accessible, informal style, but offer offer commentaries and critical examinations of past research through the lens of gender, and often critique media representations. I believe her blog is extremely successful at highlighting interesting stories, which may help readers to approach history with a new, gender conscious viewpoint, and to have a healthy skepticism towards media portrayals of archaeological stories. One possible improvement could be the use of images to make the site itself more lively and engaging, and illuminate some of the topics she discusses.

Middle Savagery was created by Colleen Morgan, an archaeology Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley. Her blog is aimed at the general public, and seems to attract many people who know nothing about archaeology but are very interested in learning or reading about the field. It also seems to target a more youthful audience and other students engaged in the field. One of the greatest assets of this site is her use of photography and digital media. Her artistic photos romanticize archaeology but in a way that still portrays they daily life and less exciting aspects of excavation (such as taking notes, measuring etc). Her use of videos, such as that “Windy Qatar,” draw the viewer’s senses into the world of archaeology, allowing them to experience what the climate is like at a particular site. The posts themselves are written in a very descriptive, yet informal way, that is both accessible for readers, and makes them feel like they are actually in her shoes, feelings every cut and scrape she gets or her dehydration and the dryness of the air. She has a remarkable ability to sensationalize the field, not by descriptions of adventure or treasure, but by her lively detail and the personalized nature of her writing, describing how it feels to be in the field and under such harsh conditions.  The ability is best exhibited by a comment by one of her readers: “I just spent a hour going through your posts and I know nothing of archeology, but damn I am enthralled and have seriously enjoyed it.” Thus her blog seems more descriptive than analytical, but does an excellent job of interesting people in the field, both textually and visually recreating the field experience for the reader.