The Twilight of Tradition

Bibliographic Data

ID8129883
AuthorsRoger Echo-Hawk (0009-0001-8928-6230, Longmont United Hospital, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume91
Issue2
Pages1-16
Publication date2026-02-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/aaq.2024.63
OpenAlexW7127053488
LanguageEN
References cited31

During the early twentieth century the rise of professional archaeology pushed the study of deep-time oral tradition into the fringes of historiography. The development of evidence-based archaeological chronologies displaced oral tradition, relying on the assumption that transmission processes include short-term limits on durability. By the end of the century, sporadic innovative partnership experiments brought together archaeological chronology and oral tradition, suggesting the need for further research. This article advances the narrative merging of oral tradition, archaeology, and genomic analysis. After surveying research on archery technology, it explores how the integrative aligning of oral tradition and archaeology can expand meaningful insights into antiquity worldwide. Although twenty-first century inquiry into deep-time oral literature unfolds in the shadowy academic fringes, perhaps such research is on the verge of professionalizing into new scholarship and a mutual enrichment of knowledge systems. Academic scholarship may someday see “prehistory” replaced by ancient human history

Chronology · General partnership · Narrative · Oral history · Oral tradition · Scholarship · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Media, Communication, and Education

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