Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies

Historical and cultural archaeology, when grounded in Black feminist theory, examines how enslaved and diasporic African communities in the Americas built identities, practiced resistance, and shaped the landscapes they were forced to inhabit — evidence that conventional colonial narratives have long obscured. Researchers piece together these histories through material remains: the objects, spatial arrangements, and built environments that reveal how race, gender, and power operated in daily life under colonial and enslaving regimes. A pressing question in current work is how publication practices within archaeology itself have reflected and reinforced gendered and racialized hierarchies, shaping whose interpretations of the past gain authority. Scholars are also working to understand how memory and place intersect — how communities of the African diaspora actively constructed meaning within landscapes designed to deny their humanity.

Works

220,768

Total citations

215,378

Keywords

Black Feminist TheoryAfrican DiasporaArchaeology of ResistanceSocial InequalityCultural IdentityHistorical Landscapes