Columbia Center for Archaeology Lunchtime Talk

“Archaeology, identity and ancient DNA”

Scott MacEachern

Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology

Duke Kunshan University, China

Recent publications on the recovery of ancient DNA from sub-Saharan African human remains signal a new phase in the study of the African past, as has been the case in other regions of the world. At the same time, conversations between geneticists and archaeologists about these research results sometimes exhibit a degree of mutual incomprehension, even though the terminologies being used are often quite similar. The same population identifiers/ethnonyms may be used by different participants in such discussions, but do not necessarily mean the same thing to the researchers involved. The spatial and social scales that people in these disciplines rely on in their analyses are often different, involving for example different understandings of historical dynamics and of sub-group and intergroup relations. These different assumptions make the reconciliation of historical models and interdisciplinary collaboration quite challenging.

ALL WELCOME

Scott MacEachern is an archaeologist specializing in research on the Neolithic, Iron Age and precolonial history of the Lake Chad Basin, in Central Africa. His current efforts involve: (1) a project on anthropic landscape changes in the Benue River Valley of Cameroon during the Iron Age; (2) a recently published book situating the terrorist organisation Boko Haram in the context of frontier processes of violence and wealth creation south of Lake Chad; and (3) work on cultural heritage management in Central/West Africa, in the context of development and resource-extraction efforts.