Hello, I’m Luis Lopez and as we finalize our preparations for the upcoming Society for American Archaeology conference in San Francisco, CA, and our poster for said conference (Sat. May 2nd, 1-3pm, Grand Ballroom) I’ve gotten to take some time to look into what other papers will be presented so that I can add them to my schedule.
The first one that caught my eye was, “Entangled Material, Techniques, and Technologies: Maguey Cloth and Paper Cochineal Dye and Paint in Colonial Tlaxcala,” which seems very interesting to me because I read a paper not too long ago about the misinterpretation of colonial tools as transforming the culture of Indigenous people; it turned to be that Indigenous people will continue their practices, but will utilize another tool if it is available. So, I’d be curious to see if that claim holds true in other people’s work. I also am Latino so it’s always interesting to learn more about the history of Latin America and the way it’s been shaped and perseveres.
“Archaeology and Segregation-Era Black Space: A Case Study in Charlotte, North Carolina” is another paper I stumbled upon that intrigued me. The paper appears to be the start of a list of papers that fall under this topic; I know very little about the how and what kind of changes occurred within the United States following WWII so I thought I might attend this paper first and go from there. Though I don’t doubt that the renewal projects were done in a way that creates inequality as it presumably proceeds the Civil Rights Movement based on the number of times it seemed to rebrand and was known to host Malcolm X. I think urban archaeology is fascinating itself too, since you’d imagine that every place where a large amount of people live in has a culture around it, but the way it shifts and changes as new developments within the city are done is often overlooked since it feels very mundane to the average person there. Though, from a larger scale you can see how those mundane things build up and stem from shifts in political climate. The history of community building for people of color is also something that too often gets overlooked and deserves to be documented.
The paper titled “Living Archaeology: A Comparative Perspective on How Archaeologists Can Study and Document the Present” touches on topics that are very similar to the kind of work we’ve done for the Rock Springs Chinatown Archaeology Project. For example, one of the authors is involved in the Thais in Illinois Project, which focuses on the experience of Thai immigrants and ways to preserve and document their history. Our team has mainly done that in the form of ArcGIS StoryMaps and we’ve gotten to participate in the creation of oral histories such as interviewing Rock Springs Chinatown descendant Arvin Chin. The preservation of any group of people is important to me, so I’ll be excited to learn more about how this is being done in the Thais in Illinois Project. I’ve lived in the greater Chicago area my whole life, so that adds to my curiosity too!
The paper “Rethinking Colonial Churches through Architectural Stratigraphy in Tahcabo, Yucatan, Mexico” focuses on deconstructing the way colonialism shaped culture and ensuring that resistance is shown, which is very important to me. In discussions of colonialism, it often sounds as if the people colonized were completely at the mercy of the colonizer, yet, this is not the case. People were always showing resistance in different forms and ensuring that those stories of persevering in the face of something as violent as colonialism is necessary if we want to accurately represent history and properly describe the struggle of those colonized.
The last group of papers I’m going to write about are definitely not the ones that I’m least interested in; they are in a session titled, “Expanding Repatriation Part 2: Lessons from Global and Institutional Collaborations.” It’s nice to find a session that focuses on the good that is currently being done in the United States to repatriate ancestral remains and sacred objects from around the globe–especially since these are actions that are done by an institution that aren’t required of them, they are done fully for the sake of making sure items and the cultural practices around them are respected as much as possible for the sake of treating everyone fairly.
The SAA will be the second archaeology conference I’ve ever gone to and the first one I’ll be presenting at (it will also be my first time flying). With so many amazing posters and papers to see I’m honored to be a part of the conference and to talk about the research we’ve done on the Rock Springs Chinatown.
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