Connecting archaeology, indigeneity, and community in the Caribbean

今天，加勒比有多个土著社区，岛屿和侨民的土著振兴运动，以及生活各方面长期公认的土著遗产。尽管如此，土著灭绝的想法仍然存在。由于坚持认为前哥伦布时代的过去已经死亡并保存在考古博物馆的收藏品中，考古学和考古学家被卷入了这一叙事。我们承认这一批评，也认识到有必要采取积极行动作出回应，1)让学科外的人参与进来，2)回答21世纪考古学家面临的关键问题：“考古学是为了谁？”(Atalay et al.2014年引用纳尔达1978年的话)。因此，拟议活动的中心目标是解决学院与加勒比社区在考古学、土著特性和代表性等主题上的分离问题。拟议的网络汇集了多米尼加共和国和波多黎各的机构和非机构合作伙伴，这两个邻近岛屿有着共同的殖民前和殖民历史，但具有独特的现代轨迹。我们将通过一系列有学术合作伙伴和非学术利益相关者参加的有重点的会议，开辟探索问题的空间。我们将讨论目前参与(和不参与)土著考古和土著遗传的不同背景。为此，我们将在遗址和在岩画地点和博物馆储藏室等共同感兴趣的物品在场的情况下举行会议，以就有关遗产和代表性的地方特有问题进行非等级对话。这是从最初的研究设计、提出的问题、参与者和方法来告知考古学实践本身所必需的。

There are multiple Indigenous communities in the Caribbean today, Indigenous revitalization movements in the islands and diaspora, and long-recognised Indigenous legacies in all aspects of life. Despite this, the idea of indigenous extinction is persistent. Archaeology and archaeologists are implicated in this narrative due to an insistence on the pre-Columbian past as dead and preserved in archaeological museum collections. We acknowledge this critique and the need to respond with positive action to 1) engage those outside the discipline, and 2) answer to the critical question for archaeologists in the 21st century: "Archaeology for whom?" (Atalay et al. 2014 citing Nalda 1978). Therefore, the central aim of the proposed activities is to address the separation between the academy and communities in the Caribbean on the themes of archaeology and indigenous identity and representation. The proposed network draws together institutional and non-institutional partners from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, neighbouring islands which share precolonial and colonial histories but with distinctive modern trajectories. We will open up a space to explore issues through a series of focused meetings involving academic partners and non-academic stakeholders. We will address the different contexts of engagement (and non-engagement) with Indigenous archaeology and indigeneity in the present. We will do this by holding meetings in sites and in the presence of objects of mutual interest such as at rockart locations and in museum storerooms to generate non-hierarchical dialogue on locally-specific issues around heritage and representation. This is needed to inform the practise of archaeology itself from the initial research design, questions asked, participants, and methods.