Collaborative Archaeology and Strategic Essentialism: Native Empowerment in Tidewater Virginia

摘要: How should archaeologists respond to descendant communities whose essentialism runs counter constructivist notions of identity? For native in Virginia, the 17th-century landscape described by Jamestown’s colonists represents a powerful documentary basis for countering discourse that denies or ignores their existence. Strategic tied notion tribes as transhistorical subjects offers means connecting contemporary accepted national narratives. While such strategies may be necessary short term, research at Werowocomoco, capital Powhatan chiefdom ca. 1607, highlights other modes social construction. Tidewater constructed pluralistic networks prior contact and reconfigured ties after 1607. They have done so incorporating new practices while retaining connections meaningful places kinship stretching across communities. The expanding involvement consultants Werowocomoco elsewhere provides point departure ‘decolonizing’ discussions this past.