An Ethnographic Approach to African Diaspora Archaeology: The Bocas Way

When the archaeology of the African Diaspora fails to consider local contexts or stakeholders, it creates historical problems for communities and researchers and leads to antagonistic research sites and adverse consequences for residents. To counter this, some archaeological research emphasizes collaboration and stakeholder involvement in order to reshape the way archaeology is experienced in community sites. Building on this work, I offer an ethnographically informed approach to African Diaspora archaeology as a collaborative method that takes local issues, histories, and politics seriously. I demonstrate how ethnography allows for a better understanding of the past and present peoples of Bocas del Toro, Panama, and can provide archaeologists committed to combating oppression with political tactics for their research. Indeed, this approach is part of a broader trend in African diasporic archaeology, which understands its work as a means for social justice. This article shows how communities can be an archaeological resource to understand data about a historical past, and in turn how African Diaspora archaeologists can be resources for local communities. It details ethnographic methods as they unfolded within the community of Bocas del Toro, Panama, in order to demonstrate an approach that builds with and in some cases can repair relationships between archaeologists and the communities we work with.