Localized Critical Theory as an Expression of Community Archaeology Practice: with an Example from Inuvialuit Elders of the Canadian Western Arctic

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Author: Lyons, Natasha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2014
• Subjects: Arctic; Mackenzie Delta; Beluga; Beluga*; Inuvialuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.79.2.183; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600002511

Abstract Critical theory has been little used in archaeology, despite its exceptional ability to understand social relations and circumstances, both past and present. In this paper, I develop the concept of a localized critical theory that connects broadscale global processes, such as colonialism and capitalism, to cultural processes that occur at the local level. This expression of archaeological practice has the power to hear, cultivate, and share the voices of individuals and communities as they speak about their respective histories, while recognizing and acknowledging their broader social context. I explore how lnuvialuit Elders' memories are portrayed and interpreted within the lnuvialuit Living History project, focusing particularly on their memories of traditional beluga-whaling in the Mackenzie Delta of Canada’s Western Arctic that were evoked through the identification and handling of ancestral whaling artifacts. I use localized critical theory to explore how Elders’ distinctive perspectives and experiences of beluga-whaling through the course of the mid-twentieth century articulate with and comment on wider historical processes and the agendas of the Canadian nation-state.