Different pasts, better futures? An island perspective on emerging consensus in “alternative” archaeologies

Around the world, archaeological orthodoxies are crumbling, and with them some of the just-so stories about the emergence of human civilizations. Painstakingly gathered evidence has revealed “hunter-gatherers” coming together in dense settlements and building huge monuments from Turkey to Florida; inhabitants of some of the first urban settlements grew domesticated crops but apparently also spent a significant part of the year following herds of wild cattle; the earliest warrior kings lived in isolated hamlets and their followers numbered dozens rather than thousands.

At the same time, the practice of archaeology itself is transforming rapidly in attempts to create a discipline that is more equitable, just, and sustainable. This includes creating spaces where research is Indigenous-led, radically feminist, and anti-racist. In relation to the wider world, archaeologists have begun laying out an argument that these new perspectives on the past, including who gets to speak for it, offer an emancipatory potential exemplified in Wengrow and Graeber’s book The Dawn of Everything. The grand narratives emerging from this kind of work remains strongly continental in outlook and evidence base. This talk will explore what contributions a perspective from Australia and Oceania offers to the emerging consensus.

Presenter

Dr James L. Flexner is Senior Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage at the University of Sydney. In July 2022 he begins an ARC Future Fellowship on the topic of ‘Archaeologies of community and colonialism in Oceania’. He has done extensive fieldwork in Hawaii, Vanuatu, and Australia. His next project focuses on the Gambier Archipelago in French Polynesia. His most recent book, Oceania, 800-1800CE, was published in the Cambridge University Press Elements Global Middle Ages series.