On Thursday, October 17 at 6:00 PM in Hibben 105, Dr. Wade Campbell, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Boston University, will present his talk Archaeological Research as a Tool for Indigenous Foodways Work: An Early Navajo Case Study from Dinétah as part of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Nothing Left for Me exhibition, as well as International Archaeology Day. This talk will also be available via Zoom. 

The Indigenous food sovereignty movement advocates for the reclamation of ancestral foods in Native communities like the Navajo Nation. What can archaeological research offer these discussions? This talk shares the results of a recent project that analyzed ceramic sherds from a ~300+ year old Diné (Navajo) habitation site in the Dinétah region of NW New Mexico. The results of this work provide evidence for a variety of early Navajo food preparation techniques c. 1750 CE, which are both similar to and different from what is done today in Diné communities. How then can we link this historical look at Diné diet with the ongoing food sovereignty movement in Indigenous communities?

Wade Campbell is a Diné (Navajo) archaeologist whose research engages with broad questions concerning the longer-term history of Navajo settlement across the American Southwest. His current work explores the colonial-era relationship between the Navajo, Spanish, and other local groups in the American Southwest as it relates to incipient pastoralism and eventual changes in land-use, social organization, and diet/subsistence practices circa AD 1700. Wade also maintains interests in a wide array of issues including the practice of indigenous archaeology, cultural resource management, Native American higher education, and West Africa archaeology.

This event is co-sponsored by the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, the UNM Department of Anthropology, and UNM Department of Native American Studies. Registration is suggested but not required.