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Introduction: Toward an Engaged Feminist
Heritage Praxis
Tiffany C. Fryer
Princeton University
and
Teresa P. Raczek
Kennesaw State University
ABSTRACT
We advocate a feminist approach to archaeological heritage work in order to transform heritage practice and
the production of archaeological knowledge. We use an engaged feminist standpoint and situate intersubjectivity
and intersectionality as critical components of this practice. An engaged feminist approach to heritage work allows
the discipline to consider women’s, men’s, and gender non-conforming persons’ positions in the field, to reveal their
contributions, to develop critical pedagogical approaches, and to rethink forms of representation. Throughout, we
emphasize the intellectual labor of women of color, queer and gender non-conforming persons, and early white
feminists in archaeology. [feminism, engaged research, heritage praxis, intersubjectivity, intersectionality]
Introduction
Archaeologists increasingly identify as heritage practition-
ers, turning toward the many publics, communities, and
audiences seeking to connect to history through the mate-
rial past. This shift has many roots, including postmodern
thought, postcolonial and Native American activism, and
feminist critique. We argue that feminist influence in her-
itage work has not reached its full potential, and as a result,
the project of reforming archaeological heritage practice
remains unfinished. While archaeologists have started the
hard work of grappling with their colonialist origins head-
on they have rarely explored or challenged the links be-
tween archaeology, cultural heritage, and heteropatriarchy.
However, the goals held by many heritage practitioners—
empowerment, democracy, equality, and community
transformation—can only be fulfilled by acknowledging,
and deciding to incorporate, feminist approaches. We chal-
lenge archaeologists and heritage practitioners to recognize
gender as a malleable and complex construction, embedded
in the forms of social dominance that permeate archaeo-
logical and heritage practice. In this volume, we advocate
employing a variety of feminisms and emphasizing a
gender-conscious lens in archaeological heritage work
in order to provide clarity to our practice. In this age of
#MeToo, #Won’tBeErased, and #CiteBlackWomen we are
inspired by the continued potential of ground-up move-
ments for social, political, and epistemological change.
Contributors to this volume thus draw on a wide range of
feminisms including critical black, indigenous, queer, post-
and de-colonial scholarship in order to transform heritage
practice and the production of archaeological knowledge.
We root this volume in anthropological theory and
methods while showcasing multiregional approaches to
archaeology. The contributors rely predominantly on
two standpoints: feminist intersubjectivity, influenced by
feminist phenomenological, ethical, and psychoanalytic
scholarship; and intersectionality, drawing specifically on
ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, Vol. 31, pp. 7–25, ISSN 1551-823X,
online ISSN 1551-8248. © 2020 The Authors. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association published by Wiley
Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12124.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use
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