The Archaeology of Difference presents a new and radically different perspective on the archaeology of cross-cultural contact and engagement in the recent historical past. Using case studies from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia, the contributors all share a concern with tracking the processes of contact between indigenous peoples and outsiders, primarily Europeans, across the varied physical and cultural landscapes of the region. Rock art sites, museum collections, surface sites, stratified shell middens and rock shelters as well as mission sites are used to examine the processes of interaction and negotiation between indigenous people and outsiders. This volume brings to light a new approach to the archaeology of contact. By moving away from acculturation or domination and resistance, and instead concentrating on the processes of interaction and negotiation the contributors attempt to understand how, in the face of introduced diseases, overwhelming and new technologies, deliberate policies of genocide and the enforced loss of traditional lands, indigenous people translated this contact into material practice.
Judy Birmingham, University of Sydney, Dr Anne Clarke, Australian National University, Dr Sarah Colley, University of Sydney, Ursula Frederick, Dr. Steven Hemming