| Collaborative archaeology engages descendant communities in a shared endeavor to understand the past (Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2008). This thesis explores the basis for these claims by examining the history of archaeology as seen through articles published in professional journals before and after the inception of "collaborative archaeology." Through an examination of articles published in American Anthropologist, American Antiquity, the Journal of Anthropological Research, Plains Anthropologist, World Archaeology, and the Annual Review of Anthropology, I consider how indigenous perspectives have been incorporated into archaeology. I document key changes in the profession regarding interactions with indigenous peoples over time and situate these changes into the broader sociopolitical context of American Indian history, law, and the development of Americanist archaeology.;The results of the journal survey indicate that for most of the 20 th century, interactions with indigenous communities were limited to specific efforts to interview native informants regarding research of archaeological interest and the use of mediated interactions with indigenous peoples via ethnohistoric information. While the publication rate of articles including indigenous perspectives in archaeology does not drastically increase over time, the type of research involving indigenous communities substantially changes in the 1980s. True collaborative research, with the reciprocity the term implies, appears in archaeological research at this time. With an increased focus on collaboration from the onset of archaeological research projects, archaeologists can become progressively more relevant to today's society, an ever-important goal of the discipline. |
