“Scientific consequentialism” is the position that the rightness and wrongness of scientific research and reporting is determined by its effects on individuals or groups, rather than by its adherence to the ideals of the scientific method. Indigenous archaeology asserts that archaeology ought to be performed “with, by, and for” indigenous peoples, and in its reasonable form, Indigenous archaeology is important to making Western science more respectful of Indigenous concerns and more applicable to studying peoples with metaphysically inclusive worldviews. However, some proponents advocate for an extreme, consequentialist form of “for” which seeks to limit scientists to research and results that serve and benefit Indigenous peoples’ social and political interests. This may include suppressing undesirable research or results, manipulating scientists or the scientific process, and avoiding research into certain subjects, all of which are presented as morally required efforts toward “the good” of decolonization. This extreme, outcome-driven form of Indigenous archaeology is irreconcilable with and even antithetical to the ideals of Western science, risks unintended negative consequences over the long term, and is no more appropriate now to support decolonial agendas than were consequentialist efforts in the past to support colonial agendas.
References
[1]
Adovasio, J. M., & Page, J. (2002). The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery. New York: Random House.
[2]
Arens, W. (1979). The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthrophagy. New York: Oxford University Press.
[3]
Atalay, S. L. (2006). Indigenous Archaeology as Decolonizing Practice. American Indian Quarterly, 30, 280-310. https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0015
[4]
Barran, P. A., & Schneider, A. L. (2001). Memorandum in Support of Motion to Vacate Second Administrative Action. Bonnichsen et al. v. United States et al., United States District Court for the District of Oregon, April 16.
[5]
Barreiro, J. (1992). A Note on the Tainos. In J. Yewell, C. Dodge, & J. DeSirey (Eds.), Confronting Columbus (pp. 30-47). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
[6]
Billman, B. R., Lambert, P. M., & Leonard, B. L. (2000). Cannibalism, Warfare, and Drought in the Mesa Verde Region during the Twelfth Century AD. American Antiquity, 65, 145-178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2694812
[7]
Cipolla, C. N., Quinn, J., & Levy, J. (2019). Theory in Collaborative Indigenous Archaeology: Insights from Mohegan. American Antiquity, 84, 127-142. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2018.69
[8]
Colwell-Chanthaphonh, C. et al. (2010). The Premise and Promise of Indigenous Archaeology. American Antiquity, 75, 228-238. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.75.2.228
[9]
Committee on Repatriation (1998). SAA Position on the Kennewick Man Controversy. Washington DC: Society for American Archaeology, March 20.
[10]
Croes, D. R. (2010). Courage and Thoughtful Scholarship = Indigenous Archaeology Partnerships. American Antiquity, 75, 211-216. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.75.2.211
[11]
Custer, J. F. (2005). Ethics and the Hyperreality of the Archaeological Thought World. North American Archaeologist, 26, 3-27. https://doi.org/10.2190/E0Y2-L9N8-43W0-RLT2
[12]
Deloria Jr., V. (1992). Indians, Archaeologists, and the Future. American Antiquity, 57, 595-598. https://doi.org/10.2307/280822
[13]
Deloria Jr., V. (1995). Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact. New York: Scribner.
[14]
Dongoske, K. E., Martin, D. L., & Ferguson, T. J. (2000). Critique of the Claim of Cannibalism at Cowboy Wash. American Antiquity, 65, 179-190. https://doi.org/10.2307/2694813
[15]
Dumont, C. W. (2011). Contesting Scientists’ Narrations of NAGPRA’s Legislative History Rule 10.11 and the Recovery of “Culturally Unidentifiable” Ancestors. Wicazo Sa Review, 26, 5-41. https://doi.org/10.1353/wic.2011.0009
[16]
Duran, E. (2006). Healing the Soulwound: Counseling with American Indians and Other Native Peoples. New York: Teachers College Press.
[17]
George, B. E. (2010). Who Am I and How Did I Get Here? In G. P. Nicholas (Ed.), Being and Becoming Indigenous Archaeologists (pp. 101-106). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
[18]
Gillespie, J. D. (2004). Review of Zimmerman, Larry J., Karen D. Vitelli and Julie Hollowell-Zimmer (2003). Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 28, 172-175.
[19]
Gnecco, C. (2011). Native Histories and Archaeologists. In C. Gnecco, & P. Ayala (Eds.), Indigenous Peoples and Archaeology in Latin America (pp. 53-66). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
[20]
Goldberg, S. (2006). Kennewick Man and the Meaning of Life (pp. 275-288). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Legal Forum.
[21]
Gonzalez-Ruibal, A., Gonzalez, P. A., & Criado-Boado, F. (2018). Against Reactionary Populism: Towards a New Public Archaeology. Antiquity, 92, 507-515. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.227
[22]
Goold, J. A., & Fanelli, M. J. (2000). Memorandum in Support of Society for American Archaeology’s Motion for Leave to Appear as Amicus Curiae. Bonnichsen et al. v. United States et al., United States District Court for the District of Oregon, December 11.
[23]
Goold, J. A., & Fanelli, M. J. (2001). Memorandum of Law in Support of the Society for American Archaeology’s Amicus Curiae Submission. Bonnichsen et al. v. United States et al., United States District Court for the District of Oregon, June 1.
[24]
Kilgour, M. (1998). The Function of Cannibalism at the Present Time. In F. Barker, P. Hulme, & M. Iverson (Eds.), Cannibalism and the Colonial World (pp. 238-259). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[25]
Kuper, A. (2003). The Return of the Native. Current Anthropology, 44, 389-402. https://doi.org/10.1086/368120
[26]
Lee, L. L. (2010). Navajo Transformative Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century. Wicazo Sa Review, 25, 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1353/wic.0.0055
[27]
Louis, R. P. (2007). Can You Hear Us Now? Voices from the Margin, Using Indigenous Methodologies in Geographic Research. Geographical Research, 45, 130-139. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00443.x
[28]
McGhee, R. (2008). Aboriginalism and the Problems of Indigenous Archaeology. American Antiquity, 73, 579-597. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0002731600047314
[29]
McNiven, I. J. (2016). Theoretical Challenges of Indigenous Archaeology: Setting an Agenda. American Antiquity, 81, 27-41. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.81.1.27
[30]
McNiven, I. J., & Russell, L. (2005). Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
[31]
Morrow, D. C., & Lekson, S. (1999). Ancestral Guilt. Archaeology, 53, 5-6.
[32]
Nicholas, G. P. (2001). The Past and Future of Indigenous Archaeology: Global Challenges, North American Perspectives, Australian Prospects. Australian Archaeology, 52, 29-40. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2001.11681703
[33]
Nicholas, G. P. (2008). Native Peoples and Archaeology. In D. M. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Volume 3, pp. 1660-1669). New York: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012373962-9.00203-X
[34]
Nicholas, G. P., & Andrews, T. D. (1997). At a Crossroads: Archaeology and First Peoples in Canada. Burnaby: Archaeology Press.
[35]
Rigney, L.-I. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous Anticolonial Cultural Critique of Research Methodologies: A Guide to Indigenist Research Methodology and Its Principles. Wicazo Sa Review, 14, 109-121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1409555
[36]
Shipley, G. P., & Williams, D. H. (2019). Limitations of the Western Scientific Worldview for the Study of Metaphysically Inclusive Peoples. Open Journal of Philosophy, 9, 295-317. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpp.2019.93020
[37]
Silliman, S. W. (2008). Collaborating at the Trowel’s Edge: Teaching and Learning in Indigenous Archaeology. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
[38]
Silliman, S. W. (2010). The Value and Diversity of Indigenous Archaeology: A Response to McGhee. American Antiquity, 75, 217-220. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.75.2.217
[39]
Smith, C., & Jackson, G. (2006). Decolonizing Indigenous Archaeology. American Indian Quarterly, 30, 311-349. https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2006.0032
[40]
Smith, L. (2004). Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heritage. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203307991
[41]
Stahl, L. (2012). Kennewick Man. 60 Minutes. CBS, September 25.
[42]
Steeves, P. F. (2015). Decolonizing Indigenous Histories, Pleistocene Archaeology Sites of the Western Hemisphere. PhD Dissertation, Binghamton, NY: Department of Anthropology, State University of New York.
[43]
Trigger, B. G. (1997). Foreword. In G. P. Nicholas, & T. D. Andrews (Eds.), At a Crossroads: Archaeology and First Peoples in Canada (pp. 7-13). Burnaby: Archaeology Press.
[44]
Tsosie, R. (2015). Indigenous Peoples and Epistemic Justice: Science, Ethics, and Human Rights. Washington Law Review, 87, 1133-1201.
[45]
Ucko, P. J. (2001). Indigenous Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 12, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.168
[46]
Waters, M. R., & Stafford Jr., T. W. (2014). The First Americans: A Review of the Evidence for the Late-Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. In K. E. Graf, C. V. Ketron, & M. R. Waters (Eds.), Paleoamerican Odyssey (pp. 541-560). College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
[47]
Watkins, J. E. (2003). Beyond the Margin: American Indians, First Nations, and Archaeology in North America. American Antiquity, 68, 273-285. https://doi.org/10.2307/3557080
[48]
Watkins, J. E. (2005). Artefacts, Archaeologists and American Indians. Public Archaeology, 4, 187-191. https://doi.org/10.1179/146551805793156211
[49]
Watkins, J. E. (2010). Indigenous Archaeology as Complement to, Not Separate From, Scientific Archaeology. Jangwa Pana, 10, 46-62.
[50]
White Deer, G. (1998). Return of the Sacred: Spirituality and the Scientific Imperative. In D. S. Whitely (Ed.), Reader in Archaeological Theory: Post-Processual and Cognitive Approaches (pp. 331-338). New York: Routledge.
[51]
Wilcox, M. (2010). Saving Indigenous Peoples from Ourselves: Separate But Equal Archaeology Is Not Scientific Archaeology. American Antiquity, 75, 221-227. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.75.2.221
[52]
Wilson, S. (2008). Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
[53]
Wobst, M. H. (2010). Power to the Indigenous Past and Present! Or: The Theory and Method behind Archaeological Theory and Method. In M. Burchac, S. M. Hart, & H. M. Wobst (Eds.), Indigenous Archaeologies: A Reader on Decolonization (pp. 76-78). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
[54]
Zimmerman, L. J., Vitelli, K. D., & Hollowell-Zimmer, J. (2003). Ethical Issues in Archaeology. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
