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Introduces an analytic model for how archaeologists can work toward social justice

In this time of Black Lives Matter, the demands of NAGPRA, and climate crises, the field of American archaeology needs a radical transformation. It has been largely a white, male, privileged domain that replicates an entrenched patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist system. In Bending Archaeology toward Social Justice, Barbara J. Little explores the concepts and actions required for such a change, looking to peace studies, anthropology, sociology, social justice activism, and the achievements of community-based archaeology for helpful approaches in keeping with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She introduces an analytic model that uses the strengths of archaeology to destabilize violence and build peace.

As Little explains, the Diachronic Transformational Action model and the peace/violence triad of interconnected personal, cultural, and structural domains of power can help disrupt the injustice of all forms of violence. Diachronic connects the past to the present to understand how power worked in the past and works now. Transformational influences power now by disrupting the stability of the violence triad. Action refers to collaborative work to diagnose power relations and transform toward social justice.

Using this framework, Little confronts the country’s founding and myth of liberty and justice for all, as well as the American Dream. She also examines whiteness, antiracism, privilege, and intergenerational trauma, and offers white archaeologists concepts to grapple with their own racialized identities and to consider how to relinquish white supremacy. Archaeological case studies examine cultural violence and violent direct actions against women, Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and Japanese Americans, while archaeologies of poverty, precarity, and labor are used to show how archaeologists have helped expose the roots of these injustices. Because climate justice is integral to social justice, Little showcases insights that archaeology can bring to bear on the climate crisis and how lessons from the past can inform direct actions today. Finally, Little invites archaeologists to embrace inquiry and imagination so that they can both imagine and achieve the positive peace of social justice.
 

The perfect introduction to what sociology is and does, presented through powerful essays applying sociological concepts to personal experience 
 
The world is a tough place right now. Climate change, income inequality, racist violence, and the erosion of democracy have exposed the vulnerability of our individual and collective futures. But as the sociologists gathered here by Marika Lindholm and Elizabeth Wood show, no matter how helpless we might feel, it’s vital that we discover new paths toward healing and change. The short, accessible, emotionally and intellectually powerful essays in Between Us offer a transformative new way to think about sociology and its ability to fuel personal and social change. These forty-five essays reflect a diverse range of experiences. Whether taking an adult son with autism grocery shopping or fighting fires in Barcelona, contending with sexism at the beach or facing racism at a fertility clinic, celebrating one’s immigrant heritage, or acknowledging one’s KKK ancestors, this book shows students that sociology is deeply rooted in everyday life and can be used to help us process and understand it. A perfect introduction to the discipline and why it matters, Between Us will resonate with students from all backgrounds as they embark on their academic journey.