Dig It: Why diversity matters in archaeology – Kamloops This Week

Non-Indigenous archaeologists interpreting ancient Indigenous culture have necessarily done so through the lens of Eurocentric biases. The result has often been to reduce millennia of sustainable technologies to insignificant “stone age” cultures.

July 22, 2020

Go to any gathering of archaeologists in this province and you will look upon a sea of white faces. Visit archaeological sites and you will overwhelmingly see white people in charge. Deal with the Archaeology Branch in Victoria and you will learn the staff that manages a 15,000-year-old archaeological record that is 99 per cent Indigenous lacks representation from those communities.

Archaeology, like many fields, has a diversity problem.

But why is it a problem? Don’t archaeologists, and other scientists, apply their knowledge and methods in unbiased ways? Doesn’t the evidence speak for itself? Aren’t training and education sufficient?

Read More: https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/community/dig-it-why-diversity-matters-in-archaeology-1.24174047