The Archaeology of African and African Diaspora History and Culture Upper-Level Undergraduate/Graduate ANTH Class Unique Number TBD Quarter TBD 2020 Class location TBD Date TBD time TBD
Instructor: Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen Email: Telephone: Office: Office Hours: Wednesdays 9 am – 12 pm
"To accept one's past – one's history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought." - James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time -
Course Description
In recent decades, there has been a surge in archaeological research related to the African diaspora. What initially began as plantation archaeology and household archaeology to answer questions of African retention and identity, has now developed into an expansive sub-field that draws from collaborations with biological and cultural anthropologists. Similarly, methodological approaches have expanded to incorporate geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and, more recently, maritime archaeological practices. The growth of African diaspora archaeology has thus pushed new methodological and theoretical considerations within the field of archaeology, and, inversely, added new insights in the field of Africana Studies.
This course covers the thematic and methodological approaches associated with the historical archaeology of Africa and the African diaspora. Students interested in African and African diaspora studies, archaeology, slavery, and race should find this course useful. In addition to an overview of the development of African diaspora archaeology, students will be introduced to the major debates within the sub-field as well as its articulation with biological and socio-cultural anthropology. The course covers archaeological research throughout the wide geographical breadth of the African diaspora in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, East, and West Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The themes covered include gender, race, identity, religion, and ethics in relation to the material record. Lectures will be supplemented with documentary films and other multimedia sources.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students should be able to: • Discuss the historical origins and development of African diaspora archaeology • Articulate the contributions archaeology has made to our understanding of slavery, emancipation, race, and diaspora • Discuss the major debates related to African retentions, resistance, gender and race in relation to
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materiality • Identify new trends in African diaspora archaeology
Feedback Statement:
During this course, I will be asking you to give me feedback on your learning in informal as well as formal ways, including through anonymous surveys about how my teaching strategies are helping or hindering your learning. It is very important for me to know your reaction to what we are doing in class, so I encourage you to respond to these surveys, ensuring that together we can create an environment effective for teaching and learning.
Email Policy: I welcome your email communications. Please allow 48 hours for a response. On the day before an assignment is due, I do not check email after 5 pm, so any questions about assignments must be sent by 5 pm the day before the due date.
Classroom Policy: Not everyone prefers to be called by their legal name, and not everyone’s preferred pronouns (for example, she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/their, ze/hir/hirs) are obvious to others. In this class, everyone has the right to go by the name and pronouns that they prefer. You may introduce yourself using whatever name you wish to use and should write your preferred name on all assignments. If your name or pronoun preference changes during the semester, please let me know so that I can refer to you by the correct name and pronouns.
I prefer that my students call me Dr. Flewellen or Professor Flewellen. I prefer the pronouns she/her/hers.
Learning Differences: We all learn in different ways. Please feel free to manage your classroom experience in a way that is best for you. You may make audio recordings of lectures or discussions, take pictures of the board, use a computer or other device to take notes and complete in-class assignments, sit or stand wherever you like in the classroom, bring in food or beverages, leave the classroom when necessary, etc. Students who want transcripts for audio/visual material should let me know as soon as possible so that I can make them. If there is something I can do to create a more comfortable learning environment for you, please never hesitate to ask (for example, "can you speak more slowly/loudly/clearly?" or "can you make the image brighter/more high-contrast?" or "can you ask Jack to wear less cologne in class?"), even if you're not registered with Disability Services.
Student Conduct: Students are required to adhere to the behavior standards articulated in the University of California Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations, and Students (PACAOS), 100.00 Policy on Student Conduct and Discipline. The full text of this policy is available through the Student Conduct & Academic Integrity Programs website at http://conduct.ucr.edu. The Standards of Conduct prohibit obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other University activities. Please visit http://senate.ucr.edu for more details.
Student Special Services: The UCR Student Special Services (SSS) has resources and technologies to help you manage your learning environment. If you have a disability, you are encouraged to register with this office. You may be entitled to accommodations in your courses, such as additional time on tests, staggered homework assignments, or note-taking assistance. This office will give you a letter outlining the accommodations to
***This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.*** 2 which you are entitled that you can share with your teachers. Whether or not you choose to register with Student Special Services, I encourage you to talk to me about any accommodations that would improve your experience in the classroom.
Office Location: Costo 125 Telephone: (951) 827-4538 (V/TTY) Website: http://specialservices.ucr.edu/Students+with+Disabilities/
Course Expectations Students are expected to come prepared for each class, having completed the readings for the week and formulated thought-provoking questions. On average, the readings will consist of approximately 50 pages/week.
Participation: (1 pt. each/10 pts) Responses to readings are required on iLearn. Each student is expected to post ten short answer responses to ten different discussion topics located in the discussion forum tab on iLearn. Student may post questions or respond to questions posed by other students. Questions posed must make explicit reference to readings that week, with citations (your question must be more than two sentences in length, provide context!). Responses to questions posted must explicitly restate the question being addressed (your response must be more than two sentences in length). Weekly forums will close at the end of the term. DO NOT wait until the last minute to post your questions and responses!
Attendance is required; unexcused absences will negatively affect one’s final grade
Reading Groups (5 pts. per sheet/ 50 pts) To increase a deeper understanding of the course readings, ALL students will be assigned to a reading group for the semester. In this group, students will act as one of three ‘roles’ (discussion leader, creative connector, or Devil’s advocate) to facilitate the learning of the course material and class discussion. Students MUST complete each reading group role at least once during the semester.
Reading group preparation will be completed outside of class while reading group meetings will take place in class each week. For each scheduled reading group, you will turn in a reading group prep sheet that corresponds to your specific reading group role in class. Each prep sheet should be labeled with your name, ID number, the date, group topic, and your group role. You will receive weekly grades on your written materials completed for your specific reading group role.
ALL PREP SHEETS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED IN CLASS ON THE DAY OF EACH READING GROUP.
Grading Rubric (10 pts. per sheet) ✓ How well have you prepared for each scheduled reading group? (2pts) ✓ Have you adequately read and understood the readings? (1pts) ✓ How much effort have you put into your contribution? (1pts)
Peer Assessment: DUE: TBD. Students will evaluate the work of themselves and their peers involved in the reading group. Evaluation scores will be averaged across the number of ratings to obtain an individual score between 0-10 points.
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Mid-term Take Home Exam Due: TBD at 11:59 p.m. (30 pts) The mid-term will be distributed on Week 5 as a take-home exam in essay format. Students will be given four (4) questions, of which they choose two (2) to answer. Each answer should be at least three (3) pages (double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12 font, 1” margins) in length for undergraduates and five (5) pages for graduate students. Students will have one week to complete the exam and are expected to use class notes, course discussions, and outside sources.
Theory Atlas: Due: TBD at 11:59 p.m. (30 pts) A theory atlas is essentially a form of "scrapbooking," combining text and graphics that represent your understanding of African Diaspora Archaeology. For this assignment you will visually chart course topics, generating content guided by the readings, lecture, and course discussions. To give it focus, please be sure to base it on your final research topic. Think of the theory atlas as a visual guide of your thoughts and interpretations of African Diaspora Archaeology. This assignment is intended to serve as a reference for what you have learned in the course. How you choose and arrange the content is up to you, but at a minimum, include the topics in the course schedule. You must also include references cited either within or at the end of each topic section of the Theory Atlas. Your theory Atlas will be checked twice, before turning in the completed atlas on the 9th week of class. DO NOT wait until the last minute to complete your Theory Atlas.
Final Paper 10-15 pp. due: TBD at 11:59 p.m. (50 pts) Students are expected to write a final paper – 15 pages for undergraduates and 20 pages for graduate students (double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12 font, 1” margins) – that engages one of the weekly topics. The use of assigned readings and outside materials is expected. Research questions may relate to current research interests or derive from class discussion. To ensure a quality paper – although not mandatory – students are encouraged to visit the UCR Writing Support Program (https://arc.ucr.edu/writing) prior to their final submission. If there are any questions or concerns about paper topics, students should schedule a visit with the professor during office hours. The final paper is due the last day of classes. iLearn: Grades, readings, discussion guides, and discussion questions will be posted on iLearn
Grading: Student performance will be graded according to the following criteria, and final letter grades will be assigned according to UCR’s grading regulations (https://senate.ucr.edu/bylaws/?action=read_bylaws&code=r§ion=01).
Participation: 10 pts Readings Groups: 50 pts Peer Assessment: 10 pts Midterm: 40 pts Theory Map: 30 pts Final Paper: 60 pts
Required Text: Singleton, Theresa A. 1999 “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. University of Virginia Press. ***This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.*** 4
Barnes, Jodi A. 2011 The Materiality of Freedom: Archaeologies of Postemancipation Life. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Additional required readings will consist of book chapters and journal articles and will be provided to students either through iLearn.
Course Outline
Week 1: Understanding Diaspora
Tuesday: Patterson, Tiffany, and Robin D. G Kelley 2000 Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World. African Studies Review 43(1): 11–45.
Thursday: Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe 2005 Rewriting the African diaspora: Beyond the Black Atlantic. African Affairs 104(414):35-68.
Gordon, Edmund T., and Mark Anderson 1999 The African Diaspora: Toward an Ethnography of Diasporic Identification. Journal of American Folklore 112(445):282-296.
Week 2: African Diaspora Archaeology in Historical Perspective
Tuesday: Singleton, Theresa A. 1999 “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. University of Virginia Press. Chapter 1: An Introduction to African American Archaeology. pp 1-20.
Leone, Mark, Cheryl LaRoche, and Jennifer Babiarz 2005 The Archaeology of Black Americans in Recent Times. Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 575–598.
Webster, Jane 2008 Slave Ships and Maritime Archaeology: An Overview. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 12(1): 6–19.
Martin, Anthony. 2018 "Homeplace is also workplace: another look at Lucy Foster in Andover Massachusetts, Historical Archaeology 52, no. 1 pp. 100-112.
Thursday: Singleton, Theresa, and Marcos André Torres de Souza. 2009 "Archaeologies of the African Diaspora: Brazil, Cuba, and the United States." In International handbook of historical archaeology, pp. 449-469. Springer, New York, NY
Weik, Terrance 2004 Archaeology of the African diaspora in Latin America. Historical Archaeology 38(1): 32–49.
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Week 3: Historical Archaeology in Africa Theory Atlas Check 1 Thursday
Tuesday: Kelly, Kenneth G. 2004 The African Diaspora Starts Here: Historical Archaeology of Coastal West Africa. In African Historical Archaeologies, edited by Andrew M. Reid and Paul Lane, pp. 219–241. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Alexander, J. 2001 Islam, Archaeology, and Slavery in Africa. World Archaeology 33(1): 44–60.
Kusimba, Chap M. 2004 Archaeology of Slavery in East Africa. African Archaeological Review 21(2): 59–88.
Thursday: DeCorse, Christopher, R. 1999 Oceans Apart: Africanist Perspectives on Diaspora Archaeology. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. Theresa Singleton (ed.). pp 132-158.
Bredwa-Mensah, Yaw. 2004 "Global encounters: Slavery and slave lifeways on nineteenth-century Danish plantations on the Gold Coast, Ghana." Journal of African Archaeology 2, no. 2 pp. 203-227.
Week 4: Trends in Plantation Archaeology
Tuesday: Fairbanks, Charles H. 1984 "The plantation archaeology of the southeastern coast." Historical Archaeology 18, no. pp. 1-14.
Armstrong, Douglass V. 1999 Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Caribbean Plantation. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. Theresa Singleton (ed.). pp 173-192.
Thursday: Croucher, Sarah K. 2007 Clove plantations on nineteenth-century Zanzibar: Possibilities for gender archaeology in Africa. Journal of Social Archaeology 7(3): 302–324.
Potter, Parker 1991 What is the use of plantation archaeology?. Historical Archaeology, pp.94-107.
Week 5: Searching for Maroons and Resistance in Archaeology Midterm Paper Due Thursday 11:59 p.m.
Tuesday: Orser, Charles, and Pedro Funari 2001 Archaeology and slave resistance and rebellion. World Archaeology 33(1): 61–72.
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González-Ruibal, Alfredo. 2014 An archaeology of resistance: Materiality and time in an African borderland. Rowman & Littlefield, Ch. 1
Thursday: Weik, Terry 1997 The archaeology of Maroon societies in the Americas: Resistance, cultural continuity, and transformation in the African diaspora. Historical archaeology: 81–92.
Deagan, Kathleen and Jane Landers 1999 Fort Mose: Earliest Free African-American Town in the United States. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. Theresa Singleton (ed.). pp 261-282.
Week 6: Race, Consumption, and Archaeology
Tuesday: Orser, Charles E. 1998 The Challenge of Race to American Historical Archaeology. American Anthropologist 100(3): 661–668.
Perry, Warren and Robert Paynter 1999 Artifacts, Ethnicity, and Archaeology of African Americans. In “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life. Theresa Singleton (ed.). pp 299-310.
Thursday: Mullins, Paul, R. 1999 Race and the genteel consumer: Class and African-American consumption, 1850-1930. Historical Archaeology: 22–38.
Galle, Jillian E. 2010 "Costly signaling and gendered social strategies among slaves in the eighteenth-century Chesapeake: an archaeological perspective." American Antiquity 75, no. 1 pp. 19-43.
Week 7: Gender in African Diaspora Archaeology Theory Atlas Check 2
Tuesday Franklin, Maria 2001 A Black feminist-inspired archaeology? Journal of Social Archaeology 1(1): 108–125.
Wilkie, Laurie A. 2003 The archaeology of mothering: an African-American midwife's tale. Psychology Press, Ch. 1
Thursday Battle-Baptiste, Whitney. 2011 Black feminist archaeology. Routledge, Ch. 1
Teague, Megan Ann, and James M. Davidson. 2011 "Victorian Ideals and Evolving Realities: Late-Nineteenth-and Early-Twentieth Century Black Dallas and an Engendered African America." In The Materiality of Freedom: Archaeologies of Post
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Emancipation Life. Jodi A. Barnes, ed (2011): 87-114.
Week 8: Racial Politics and Representation Return Mid-term Exam
Tuesday: Franklin, Maria. 1997 “Power to the people”: Sociopolitics and the archaeology of black Americans." Historical Archaeology 31, no. 3 (1997): 36-50.
Franklin, Maria 1997 Why are there so few black American archaeologists? Antiquity: an international journal of expert archaeology 71(274).
Odewale, Alicia, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Flewellen, and Alexandra Jones. 2018 "Archaeology for the Next Generation." Anthropology News 59, no. 1 pp e210-e215.
Thursday: LaRoche, C. J., and M. L. Blakey 1997 Seizing intellectual power: The dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. Historical Archaeology 31(3): 84–106.
McCarthy, John 1996 Who Owns These Bones?: Descendant Communities and Partnerships in the Excavation and Analysis of Historic Cemetery Sites in New York and Philadelphia. Public Archaeology Review 4(2):3- 12.
McDavid, Carol 1997 Descendants, Decisions, and Power: The Public Interpretation of the Archaeology of the Levi Jordan Plantation. Historical Archaeology 31(3):114-131.
Week 9: Methodology and Praxis Theory Map Due Thursday
Tuesday: Agbe-Davies, Anna S., Jillian E. Galle, Mark W. Hauser, and Fraser D. Neiman. 2014 "Teaching with digital archaeological data: A research archive in the university classroom." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21, no. 4 (2014): 837-861.
Flewellen, Ayana Omilade. 2020 "African Diasporic Choices." Nordisk Tidsskrift for Informationsvidenskab og Kulturformidling 8, no. 2: 54-74.
DAACS: New Media and Archaeology DACCS Workshop: www.daacs.org
Thursday: Howard, Jerry J.
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2019 "An Ethnographic Approach to African Diaspora Archaeology: The Bocas Way." Transforming Anthropology 27, no. 2 pp. 133-148.
Hartmann, Saidiya. 2008 "Venus in Two Acts." Small Axe 26 (2008)
Flewellen, Ayana Omilade. 2017 "Locating Marginalized Historical Narratives at Kingsley Plantation." Historical Archaeology 51, no. 1 pp. 71-87.
Week 10: Current Works Final Paper Due The Last Day of Class
Tuesday Lee, Nedra K., and Jannie Nicole Scott. 2019 "Introduction: New Directions in African Diaspora Archaeology." Transforming Anthropology 27, no. 2 (2019): 85-90.
Franklin, Maria, and Nedra Lee. 2019 "Revitalizing Tradition and Instigating Change: Foodways at the Ransom and Sarah Williams Farmstead, c. 1871–1905." Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 8, no. 3 pp 202-225.
Thursday Gray, D. Ryan. 2019 "Memories of Black Indian Materialities in Colonial New Orleans." Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 8, no. 1-2 pp. 78-109.
Brunache, Peggy. 2019 "Mainstreaming African Diasporic Foodways When Academia Is Not Enough." Transforming Anthropology27, no. 2 (2019): 149-163.
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