Survivance Storytelling in Archaeology

Bibliographic Data

ID20043867
AuthorsNathan P Acebo, Nathan Acebo (0000-0002-4311-8995, corresponding author)
Year2021
Pages468-485
Publication date2021-05-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueRoutledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780429274251-33
OpenAlexW3167824502
ISBN9780429274251
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Alongside other Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and cultural values, Gerald Vizenor’s (White Earth Nation) concept of survivance has become an increasingly popular interpretive perspective in Indigenous archaeology and related fields of heritage management. Survivance is a powerful Indigenous condition that enables the rejection of Indigenous victimhood. Archaeologists are positively adapting survivance to work with archaeological perspectives on materiality and social practice to challenge false representations of Indigenous peoples as racially inauthentic and/or figuratively extinct in academic and public heritage discourses. However, questions linger over the depth and breadth of archaeologists’ engagement with Vizenor’s broader project of Indigenous healing (i.e., “socio-acupuncture”) given different but persistently generalized middle-range theorizations of survivance in archaeological research. In this chapter, I provide a brief summary of Vizenor’s survivance and other interrelated concepts, applications of survivance in archaeology, and an example of archaeological survivance storytelling that emerged specifically through my research partnership with Tongva, Acjachemen, and Payómkawichum peoples of the Los Angeles Basin (LA Basin) in Southern California

Archaeology · Art · Literature · Narrative · Storytelling · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights

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