Nguyen Linh Chi
201945920
ARCH 1005
Atalay, S. (2006). Indigenous archaeology as decolonizing practice. The American
Indian Quarterly, 30(3/4), 280-310.
Five keywords related to Atalay’s Indigenous archaeology as decolonizing practice are
colonization, decolonization, culture, Indigenous, and archaeology.
Basically, the expository and informative summary are pretty similar. According to Wilhoit
(2016, pp. 67-68), the only difference between them is that an explanatory summary includes the
author’s primary arguments and opinions while an informative summary only conveys facts,
data, and supporting material. To recognize a summary is explanatory or informative quickly we
can look at the body of the summary, there will be several references to the author and explain
how the source text is formed.
Sonya Atalay is an archaeologist with active fieldwork in the Great Lakes region of the U.S.
According to her biography, her research relates to Indigenous archaeology, the use of
community-based participatory research (CBPR) designs, as well as applications of Indigenous
forms of heritage management and stewardship, reburial and repatriation (including NAGPRA),
and the ethics of community and public collaboration. In the American Indian Quarterly, Sonya
Atalay starts her article with definitions and methodologies about Indigenous archaeology.
Throughout this section, Atalay demonstrates archaeological studies and the understanding of
people’s lives, cultural and spiritual beliefs, art, and the array of their own society; opposed to
materialistic items. Atalay points out how cultural and colonial history was created and she
believes that Western beliefs play a vital role in this process. Europeans wanted to learn about
the history and the land of North America along with the artifacts, while wealthy North
Americans only curious about the artifacts because of financial reasoning at the very first time.
Atalay states that in the 1960s, Indigenous groups around the world began to protest over the
excavation, collection, and display of their cultural and ancestral remains by professional and
amateur archaeologists. Their culture is disrupted, the remains were crashed instead of reburied
and lands were being destroyed. They have been increasingly vocal about the unethical practices
of digging up their past and their wish to keep their own heritage under control within the past
thirty. Then, Atalay discussed how these actions began decolonizing archaeology. Some
researchers have responded positively to the Indigenous concerns and began working with them
to bring about a number of changes in behaviors and policies based on reburials. These are early
steps taken internally toward decolonizing the discipline. Atalay also includes why
decolonization research is a productive way to study the changes in beliefs of the Indigenous
communities and traditional knowledge. In conclusion, Sonja Atalay wanted to indicate the
benefits of bringing archeologists and indigenous groups together. It would allow for a more
comprehensive study of culture; both of their views will help rebuild the existing theories and
consolidated methodologies.
