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| Program > Digging Science |
| Programme > Creuser la science |
| J.
Conor Burns
(University of Toronto) Moundbuilders and Material Culture, 1884-1894: An Alternative Approach for Understanding the History of Prehistoric Archaeology |
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Thousands of large-scale earthwork structures were once distributed throughout the Ohio River watershed, and these mounds became controversial objects for archaeological inquiry in the 1880s and 90s. Archaeologists wanted to understand the historical relationship between living Indians, who no longer lived in direct association with mounds, and the archaeological record of the mounds' creators. Historians have described the institutional and cognitive dimensions of this period in the history of archaeology. They have emphasized the role of the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology in exerting institutional authority over a vast, heterogeneous network of amateurs in order to establish a "correct" scientific belief regarding mounds, bringing the "moundbuilder controversy" to a close. My research on mound archaeology has focused on the practical management of archaeological data-on details such as site excavation techniques and museum curatorship of artifacts-within the considerably complex social structures of nineteenth century American science. In this paper, I will discuss investigations of Serpent Mound, Ohio with special attention to the physical and social management of archaeological data via Harvard's Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. I will argue that this level of analysis might improve our understanding of the development of prehistoric archaeology-an important branch of anthropology-and of the conditions under which excavation, documentation, and interpretation of archaeological sites occurs.
Institute
for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
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