![]() ![]() To remedy this disjuncture, we interrogate how historical archaeology may escape the bounds of implicit racism in its denial of historicity before literacy. If we practice an historical archaeology that only valorizes the colonial experience, then what happens to history making that engaged cultures in the pre-capitalist and premodern era? Such approaches separate the histories of people in Africa from those of the West, and, are in effect, academic apartheid. By confining historical archaeology to the era of capitalism and colonialism, we declare that the indigenous histories of many areas of the globe are of no interest to such an intellectual agenda. ![]() ![]() Will Historical Archaeology Escape Its Western Prejudices to Become Relevant to Africa? A major problem facing North American approaches to historical archaeology is the exclusionary manner in which the discipline is defined. In a number of respects, the contours of archaeology now hinge upon the discipline's responses to developments in real time, including: How can archaeological knowledge production escape the logistical and epistemological bounds of late capitalism and its failures? Can archaeology contribute to future-building, and what would that look like? Does archaeology have to be scholar-activism to achieve the goal of making the past matter (to whom) (for what)? Furthermore, these concerns have moved from the realm of the rarely spoken and come to constitute a critical conversation in the field. ![]() A review of the scholarship from 2019 attests that archaeologists are having to reckon with present-day conditions and phenomena as they structure their research, delineate the material world, and affirm archaeology's relevance. Post-modernity has a distinctly pre-apocalyptic feel to it, and this feeling has seeped into archaeology. ![]()
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