World Archaeology

Braiding Knowledges in Archaeology: Theory, Practice, and Ethics

With the growth of community-based and collaborative archaeologies around the world, as well as continued efforts to decolonize archaeological method and theory in settler nations specifically, communities and scholars are increasingly examining the forms, outcomes, limitations, and ethics of knowledge production. The metaphor of braiding has emerged in recent years as an especially impactful approach for bringing together previously distinct or separate, but potentially complementary, strands or threads of knowledge. The resulting braid can lead to enriched spaces of interpretation and meaning, as well as stronger results and improved understandings of the world around us. In still other areas of the world where basketry and weaving traditions predominate, “weaving” or “plaiting” might serve as a more relevant operational concept. The idea still being to bring together many different components (raw materials, colors, textures) to create one item (e.g., a basket, a rug, or another textile), or weaving archaeological and local knowledges to produce more relevant and responsible understandings of the past for today with each strand retaining its integrity.

In this themed volume, we invite articles that investigate the techniques, teachings, and results of braiding. Submissions might address specific case examples of braiding in archaeology and cultural heritage research (i.e., research happening in field, laboratory, museum, archival, and community spaces), or examine the theoretical and ethical dimensions of braiding with an eye toward presenting success stories and/or solutions to overcoming potential shortcomings during the braiding process. Among the questions contributors are encouraged to consider are: Who gets to braid? How are braiding methodologies incorporated into archaeological training, curriculum design, and field and laboratory training contexts? When, how, and in what aspects of research does braiding happen and what are the specific mechanics of braiding in action? Should it happen and what risks might be involved in braiding knowledges? How have projects and/or interpretations transformed because of braiding? How and in what ways has archaeology as a western science transformed through its braiding or interweaving with community knowledges, epistemologies, or ontologies? How are braiding methodologies shared with government agencies who manage cultural heritage and what are the implications of braided knowledges for institutional, state, federal and Tribal policies? How are braids held together and, should a braid begin to unfurl, what steps might be taken to bring it back together with or without additional strands of wellness? Moreover, are braids meant to last, or can knowledges be unbraided and/or rebraided differently; what temporal considerations, in other words, are there when newer and potentially helpful or contradictory knowledges come to light?