Research as praxis

The craft of archaeology has allowed me to transcend

customary academic, intellectual and political boundaries. My

scholarship crosses borders and frontiers and uses wedges to

widen the cracks in taken for granted knowledge. I toil to

evaluate interpretations of the real world, to construct

meaningful histories for publics, to achieve real collaboration

with communities and to challenge both the legacies of

colonialism and the omnipresent class struggles of the modern

world. To attain these goals I formulated a theoretical approach

to archaeology based on Hegelian Marxism. This theory uses

the dialectic to break down the oppositions that bedevil

polemical debate in archaeology. Over the last two decades I

have applied this theory to collaborative research projects in

Sonora and in southern Colorado that involved both

substantive research and political action. These projects

traverse time from the ancient to the contemporary. The

National Science Foundation, National Geographic and the

Colorado Historical Society have funded this research. My

efforts are manifest in my continuing scholarly production but

the real measure of my success lies in the extent to which

others have been inspired, enlightened, enraged, embarrassed,

or motivated by my engagement with knowing the world,

critiquing the world, and taking action in the world.