Community for the Archaeology of THE Americas

About the Community

Established: 2021
Renewed:
Contact:

Chairpersons:

  • Marcia Hattori (Universidad del Pais Vasco, marcia.hattori@gmail.com)
  • Thibault Saintenoy (Incipit-CSiC, thibault.saintenoy@incipit.csic.es)

Board members:

  • Alexander Geurds (University of Oxford, alexander.geurds@arch.ox.ac.uk)
  • Carla Jaimes (University of Bonn, cjaimes@uni-bonn.de)
  • Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, M.Lazzari@exeter.ac.uk)
  • Carolina Orsini (Museo delle Culture de Milano, Carolina.Orsini@comune.milano.it)
  • Mariusz Ziolkowski (University of Warsaw, mziolkowski@uw.edu.pl)

Established in 2021, The EAA Community for the Archaeology of the Americas is aimed at networking between Americanist actors in Europe, to foster and facilitate collaborative archaeological and heritage research in the Americas.

Read more, interact and follow

Community for the Archaeology of Americas

(content available to current EAA members)

Aims

  1. To bring visibility to ongoing Americanist research in Europe
  2. To promote collaborative networks among its actors for academic training, for cooperation in scientific research, and for the formulation of new projects based on interdisciplinary and multi-sited approaches
  3. To contribute to open science through the sharing of data, tools, and methodologies
  4. To contribute to the dissemination of information about ongoing scientific projects and upcoming events
  5. To support and advise students based in the Americas for studying in Europe, as well as students based in Europe for participating in and/or developing research projects in the Americas
  6. To encourage critical discussion on the social, cultural, and political matters related to archaeological practice as well as to the production of archaeological knowledge and heritage (e.g., decolonial process, social justice, epistemological insights)

Topics

At the beginning of 2020, before creating the community, a survey was disseminated to figure out if such a community would make sense to other people. This figure shows the topics of interest expressed by some 150 persons who answered the survey.

Actors

  • Researcher, teachers, practitioners, students, and everyone interested in Americanist research in archaeology and heritage can register to the EAA and become a member of the community.
  • The community is administrated by a board which members are responsible for EEA4Am activities planning. These members are (re-)elected annually.
  • 2021 Community co-chair: Marcia Hattori (Incipit-CSiC, marcia.hattori@incipit.csic.es) and Thibault Saintenoy (Université des Antilles, thibault.saintenoy@univ-antilles.fr)
  • 2021 Community Board: Alexander Geurds (University of Oxford, alexander.geurds@arch.ox.ac.uk), John Carman (Birmingham University, j.carman@bham.ac.uk), Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, M.Lazzari@exeter.ac.uk), Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham University, rui.g.coelho@durham.ac.uk), and Mariusz Ziolkowski (University of Warsaw, mziolkowski@uw.edu.pl).

The resource library section (for members) contains several documents including the reports of the process of community co-construction.

Actions

  • Community board meetings are organized on a quarterly basis, to exchange information and assess the development of new projects and activities.
  • EAA4Am organizes a public community meeting, as well as a session, both at EAA Annual Meetings.

EAA4Am Map of Actors

The map below is aimed at visualizing the current Americanist research ecosystem in Europe. Clicking the dots allows you to identify and contact active research units, museums, and scientific societies.

Announcements

  • Dear EAA4Am members,

    Community meeting is scheduled on Wednesday August 30th, 15-17 BST.

    Participants in Belfast will meet in the Peter Froggatt building room no. PFC/02/013.
    Online participants can join the following virtual room: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89659509799 (password: 2854978).

    This meeting will allow us to treat the following topics:
    - debriefing of EAA4Am 2023 meeting at Incipit-CSIC,
    - organization of 2024 meeting at University of Reading,
    - renewal of EAA4Am Community Board, and
    - others of interest to participants.

    See you soon,

    EAA4Am Board


  • The recorded talks at the assemblies held in Bornos (2022) and Compostela (2023) are available on EAA4Am’s youtube channel, here.

     

  • Dear colleagues,

    EAA4Am community is organizing two sessions at the next European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting. The conference will take place in Belfast between August 30th and September 2nd. It will also be open to online participation.

    The two sessions organized by EAA board members are the following:

    - Session 437, Current research in the Americas

    - Session 516, Interrogating European archives of Americanist archaeology

    Details can be found below, as well as on the EAA online program (https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2023). The call for papers is open until February 9th.

    Regards,

    The EAA4Am board

     
     

    Session 437

    Title

    Current research in the Americas

    Abstract

    Organised by the EAA4Am Community, this session aims to creating a welcoming space for archaeologists participating in the 2023 annual meeting, and interested in introducing and sharing results of ongoing research on the archaeology and heritage of the Americas. Despite the long trajectory of research in the Americas by scholars based in European institutions, few spaces dedicated to Americanist archaeology exist in European archaeological meetings. This session aims to overcome this by sharing information on ongoing projects as well as providing insights about our research practices.

    We welcome contributions that present archaeological and heritage research on the Americas from all time periods, and which adopt a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including interdisciplinary and reflexive approaches (alterity, coloniality, gender, resistance, heritage production and conflict, amongst others). The goal of the session is not only networking, but also to generate debates about the possibilities, limitations, and perspectives of practicing Americanist research while based in Europe.

    Keywords

    Archaeology, Heritage, Americas

    Co-organizers

    Thibault Saintenoy, Marcia Hattori, Mariusz Ziolkowski, Marisa Lazzari, Carla Jaimes, Carolina Orsini and Alexander Geurds

     

    Session 516

    Title

    Interrogating European archives of Americanist archaeology

    From the earliest contacts of Europeans with native American cultures during conquests and colonization, artefacts, especially crafts and art produced by the latter, have constituted objects of interest, description and, in some cases, were taken to Europe to supply antiquity collections. In later times, and in particular from the second half of the 18th century onwards, pre-Columbian monuments and objects became the subject of more scientifically oriented research, accounts of which often accompanied the shipment of archaeological objects to European collections. The famous Trujillo del Perú codex, published by Baltasar Martínez Compañón in 1782-1785, may be viewed as an example of such an early scientific archive. As this process continued and grew during the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries, the production of “scientific” narratives (chronicles, measurements, graphic documentation, cartography, photography, etc.) also developed on a great scale. Most of this data has generally been accumulated in private and institutional collections throughout Europe. Today, these archives constitute a great resource, in order to research the American past as well as to better understand the history of European research approaches and practices in the Americas.

    During these last decades, the archaeological collections of artefacts produced by European scientific practices throughout the Americas have often been the subject of reflections and debates, in relation to their analysis, curation, exhibition, and in specific contexts to their repatriation to their place of origin. In comparison, few have been done about the non-artefactual data (mainly texts and images).

    In this session, we would like to approach the question of the scientific documentation archives of European investigations in the Americas. How well-known and easy to access are they? What is their potential for research? What is their meaning and utility for indigenous communities and American (and European) states? We would welcome both presentations on specific archives (related or not to artefact collections), as well as more global/critical reflections about the historical contexts of their production, and about the issue of archives management for their common access and use.

    Keywords

    Americas, history of archaeology, archives, collections

    Co-organizers

    Mariusz Ziolkowski, Thibault Saintenoy, Marcia Hattori, Marisa Lazzari, Carla Jaimes, Carolina Orsini and Alexander Geurds

     

  • The Second European meeting of Americanist archaeology, organized by EAA4Am community, will be hold by Incipit-CSiC in Santiago de Compostela, in april. More info: https://www.incipit.csic.es/en/events#:~:text=eaa4am%20scientific%20meeting

     

  • Info, program and recordings are available at : http://www.ceacusco.pl/es/asamblea.html

  • Tracing the Past, Charting the Future: Exploring Archaeological Research Collaboration between the Americas and Europe International collaboration between European and American teams for archaeological research has a long history of both practical and theoretical interactions. In addition to scientific achievements resulting from dialogues between schools of thought and exchanges of technical knowledge, this collaboration has also contributed to the creation of international institutions dedicated to Americanist research, such as museums, conferences, research centers, and university programs. Through a historiographic perspective, we would like to reflect on the future of such practices of international collaborations in the current global world where ubiquitous interconnections coexist with national borders, geopolitical interests, and the ongoing decolonial process. This session welcomes testimonies and insights on diverse experiences of international collaboration for Americanist archaeological research based on the life stories of institutions, projects, and/or individuals. Contributions might refer to equity-related issues along the decolonial axis: what is happening on that end? In how far are there trends in Europe? What patterns do we see in local, regional, and national contexts in the Americas that shape such practices? Our goal is to understand which purposes drove past international collaborations and which ones should motivate us to conduct new projects in the complex local/global frameworks of our time. Keywords: International research practices, Archaeological theories, Americanist archaeology, Decolonialism, Scientific collaboration Organisers: Thibault Saintenoy (Université des Antilles, France) Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, United Kingdom) Marcia Hattori (Incipit-CSiC, Spain) Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham university, UK) Alexander Geurds (Leiden University, Netherlands) Mariusz Ziółkowski (University of Warsaw, Poland) John Carman (University of Birmingham, UK)