Saving Indigenous Peoples from Ourselves: Separate but Equal Archaeology is not Scientific Archaeology

Abstract

In his recent article “Aboriginalism and the Problems of Indigenous Archaeology,” Robert McGhee questions the intellectual viability of Indigenous Archaeology as well as the contributions of Indigenous Peoples within the field of archaeology. Further, the author challenges the very notion of Indigeneity and characterizes Indigenous and scientific perspectives as mutually incompatible. I argue that the author's solution of “separate but equal” domains for scientific vs. Indigenous archaeologies misrepresents both science and Indigeneity as homogenous entities, affirms these positions as inherently dichotomized and invites comparison to some of the troubling philosophical legacies of racial segregation.