2021 Outstanding Academic Titles: Anthropology and Archaeology

Five selections from the Choice Reviews 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles list. This week we highlight Choice 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles pertaining to anthropology and archaeology.

Posted on August 17, 2022 in Outstanding Academic Titles

Five selections from the Choice Reviews 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles list. This week we highlight Choice 2021 Outstanding Academic Titles pertaining to anthropology and archaeology.

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1. Archaeologies of violence and privilege
ed. by Christopher N. Matthews and Bradley D. Phillippi New Mexico, 2020

Historical archaeology has been touted as the place where a field otherwise dominated by the world of materiality and things necessarily gives voice to the voiceless, thereby compelling readers to reflect on what it truly means to “bear witness.” Even so, recent archaeological studies have taken to interrogating the undocumented heritage of African American, Chinese, and other communities of color predominantly excluded from the American realm of academic and narrative privilege that fosters an ongoing dynamic of “intellectual deforestation.” Even so, where the social violence visited on such communities is concerned, archaeologists have inadvertently contributed to the objectification of such violence by way of its exclusive interpretation and reification through the eyes of the perpetrator, rather than through the subjective experience of the victim. Here, Matthews (Montclair State Univ.) and Phillippi (Hofstra Univ.) assemble a group of scholars to examine forms of violence. View on Amazon.

2. Going forward by looking back: archaeological perspectives on socio-ecological crisis, response, and collapse
ed. by Felix Riede and Payson Sheets Berghahn Books, 2020

This collection presents diverse studies of climate disasters and human responses, with a particular focus on how knowledge of past catastrophes and resilience in their aftermath can contribute to risk reduction in the future. In section 1 (“Fire”), the editors and contributors pay special attention to volcanic eruptions and their consequences, considering, among other topics, the Laacher See volcanic eruption in Germany 12,900 years ago, and how a similar eruption today would devastate the European economic system; the potential risks created by the destruction of nuclear power plants by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes around the Ring of Fire; how societies in Central America and Mexico have reacted to hurricanes and volcanic eruptions; and the impact of climate disasters on societies across North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Section 2 (“Water”) treats water hazards such as hurricanes and droughts, covering the impacts of Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina; the mid-Holocene drought in Europe and the major societal changes that resulted from it; floods and droughts caused by El Niño and La Niña in Peru; and the modern water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa. View on Amazon.

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3. Has archaeology buried the Bible?
Dever, William G. Eerdmans, 2020

To what degree and in what ways can the set of disparate texts known as the Hebrew Bible interest the non-religious? To what degree can archaeology illuminate and act as a check on propagandistic Biblical texts? Despite its sensationalist title, this short, superb generalist book by Dever (emer., Univ. of Arizona), a respected and prolific archaeologist of Iron Age Palestine, demonstrates how archaeological discoveries triangulated with textual evidence illuminate the lives and attitudes of Hebrews and Canaanites between the earliest Hebrew ethnogenesis (c. 1400 BC) to about 500 BC. Although aimed at both believers and skeptics, this book happily contains no supernatural causation and will fascinate non-believers who want an up-to-date, informed scholarly account, using all evidence available, of a formative period of this troubled area of the world. It addresses the history of Holy Land archaeology, the migration history of the proto-Hebrews, Hebrews in Egypt, the conquest in the Holy Land, Hebrew state formation, military interaction with surrounding powers, Hebrew polytheism, and divine kingship. The sections on the early Patriarchs, Judges, and Josiah are especially brilliant. View on Amazon.

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4. Native Providence: memory, community, and survivance in the Northeast
Rubertone, Patricia E. Nebraska, 2020

Rubertone (Brown Univ.) has conducted meticulous archival research to reveal the enduring presence of Native peoples in Providence, Rhode Island, from the 19th through the 20th centuries by examining census reports, city directories, land records, probate inventories, newspaper accounts, personal documents, scrapbooks, oral histories, and photographs. Seven chapters, each devoted to a distinct neighborhood, reconstruct the lives and lived experiences of individuals, families, and interconnected households. Many were Wampanoags, Mohegans, and Nipmucs who settled in working-class neighborhoods alongside native-born and immigrant groups in search of new opportunities following state-sponsored termination in the 1870s. Native women “kept house,” and joined the work force as domestic servants and laundresses. Men toiled as teamsters, stonemasons, day laborers, and chauffeurs, and soldiered in “colored” regiments during the Civil War and WW I. Afro-Indians characterized Native Providence, though given the tortured history of race in America predicated on the myth of the vanishing Indian, the public perceived them as “Negroes,” erasing their Native identity. Rubertone restores these Natives who were “unnoticed, uncounted, and undervalued in urban histories” (p. 266) and identifies the importance of the Pond Street Church, which fostered Native community. View on Amazon.

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5. Class, gender and migration: return flows between Mexico and the United States in times of crisis
by María Eugenia D’Aubeterre Buznego, Alison Elizabeth Lee, and María Leticia

While immigration has been debated since Colonial America, few books capture the essence of Mexican immigration, the law, and the intertwining forces shaping immigration enforcement. In this fascinating account of one of the US’s most polemic issues, D’Aubeterre Buznego, Rivermar Pérez (both, Benemérita Univ. Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico), and Lee (Univ. de las Américas Puebla, Mexico) vividly assess borders of exclusion and inclusion and masterfully dissect the economic and political twists and turns of the Mexican immigrant experience with the US criminal justice system. This timely, powerful, and provoking analysis details the myths, stereotypes, and fears surrounding Mexican immigration and immigration in general, while revealing the realities of immigrants and the unspoken/underlying forces governing anti-immigrant movements. The authors discuss immigrants’ stories, masterfully delineating their journeys, struggles, and dreams. Writing from a humanistic standpoint, they effectively situate Mexican immigration within a global context, highlighting immigrants’ many contributions and significance to American society. In the face of extreme anti-immigrant hate across the country, Class, Gender and Migration offers the possibility for positive transformation as society strives for inclusion, equality, and justice.While immigration has been debated since Colonial America, few books capture the essence of Mexican immigration, the law, and the intertwining forces shaping immigration enforcement. In this fascinating account of one of the US’s most polemic issues, D’Aubeterre Buznego, Rivermar Pérez (both, Benemérita Univ. Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico), and Lee (Univ. de las Américas Puebla, Mexico) vividly assess borders of exclusion and inclusion and masterfully dissect the economic and political twists and turns of the Mexican immigrant experience with the US criminal justice system. This timely, powerful, and provoking analysis details the myths, stereotypes, and fears surrounding Mexican immigration and immigration in general, while revealing the realities of immigrants and the unspoken/underlying forces governing anti-immigrant movements. The authors discuss immigrants’ stories, masterfully delineating their journeys, struggles, and dreams. Writing from a humanistic standpoint, they effectively situate Mexican immigration within a global context, highlighting immigrants’ many contributions and significance to American society. In the face of extreme anti-immigrant hate across the country, Class, Gender and Migration offers the possibility for positive transformation as society strives for inclusion, equality, and justice. On Amazon.

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