To Hell with Ethnoarchaeology … and Back!

ABSTRACT

In 2016 Olivier Gosselain published a paper in Archaeological Dialogues suggesting that ethnoarchaeology should “go to hell”. His provocation misrepresents the ethnoarchaeology of the past quarter century, as is evident in a literature of which he appears largely unaware. Here we refute his charges, showing, for example, that ethnoarchaeologists neither regard the societies with which we work as living fossils, nor do we entertain naïve stereotypes regarding their workings. Our refutations are accompanied by commentaries on topics raised that introduce readers to the substantial recent literature. Far from a wreck, ethnoarchaeology, a form of material culture studies practiced by and mainly for archaeologists, has vigor and relevance, making theoretical, methodological and historical contributions that are worldwide in scope. And as we demonstrate for Africa, non-Western ethnoarchaeologists contribute substantially to the ethnoarchaeological literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Gosselain
• literature review
• ethnoarchaeology
• archaeological inference
• technologies
• theory
• practice
• methods

Acknowledgements

We thank David Killick for insightful suggestions and Stefano Biagetti, Wazi Apoh, Per Fredriksen, Bula Wayessa, and Emanuel Kessy for sharing information on ethnoarchaeology courses offered in their areas of work. Our paper was enriched by the comments of colleagues attending the Society of Africanist Archaeologists’ conference in Toronto, Ontario, in June 2018 where we presented a brief draft of this paper. Thanks also to James Skibo and three anonymous reviewers, all of whom made us think.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Diane Lyons has conducted ethnoarchaeological research in Cameroon, Sudan and Ethiopia since 1986. Her research in Ethiopia spans the period from 1996 to 2015, and she directed the Tigray Pottery Project between 2007 and 2015. Her work focuses on the material and spatial constitution of social identities.

Nicholas David (http://homepages.ucalgary.ca/~ndavid/Homepage/) carried out ethnoarchaeological and archaeological research in Cameroon and Nigeria between 1968 and 2008, directing the Mandara Archaeological Project from 1984 onwards. His many ethnoarchaeological publications include Ethnoarchaeology in Action with Carol Kramer (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and ethnographic films (see https://www.youtube.com/user/nicdavid37).