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Books by Neal Ferris
Rethinking Colonial Pasts through Archaeology explores the archaeologies of daily living left by ... more Rethinking Colonial Pasts through Archaeology explores the archaeologies of daily living left by the indigenous and other displaced peoples impacted by European colonial expansion over the last 600 years. This new, comparative focus on the archaeology of indigenous and colonized life has emerged from the gap in conceptual frames of reference between the archaeologies of pre-contact indigenous peoples, and the post-contact archaeologies of the global European experience. Case studies from North America, Australia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Ireland significantly revise conventional historical narratives of those interactions, their presumed impacts, and their ongoing relevance for the material, social, economic, and political lives and identities of contemporary indigenous and other peoples (e.g. metis or mixed ancestry families, and other displaced or colonized communities).
The volume provides a synthetic overview of the trends emerging from this research, contextualizing regional studies in relation to the broader theoretical contributions they reveal, demonstrating how this area of study is contributing to an archaeology practiced and interpreted beyond conceptual constraints such as pre versus post contact, indigenous versus European, history versus archaeology, and archaeologist versus descendant. In addition, the work featured here underscores how this revisionist archaeological perspective challenges dominant tropes that persist in the conventional colonial histories of descendant colonial nation states, and contributes to a de-colonizing of that past in the present. The implications this has for archaeological practice, and for the contemporary descendants of colonized peoples, brings a relevance and immediacy to these archaeological studies that resonates with, and problemetizes, contested claims to a global archaeological heritage.
1990. Occasional Publications of the London Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society Number ... more 1990. Occasional Publications of the London Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society Number 5. London, Ontario.
From the Flier: Colonialism may have significantly changed the history of North America, but its... more From the Flier:
Colonialism may have significantly changed the history of North America, but its impact on Native Americans has been greatly misunderstood. In this book, Neal Ferris offers alternative explanations of colonial encounters that emphasize continuity as well as change affecting Native behaviors. He examines how communities from three aboriginal nations in what is now southwestern Ontario negotiated the changes that accompanied the arrival of Europeans and maintained a cultural continuity with their pasts that has been too often overlooked in conventional “master narrative” histories of contact.
In reconsidering Native adaptation and resistance to colonial British rule, Ferris reviews five centuries of interaction that are usually read as a single event viewed through the lens of historical bias. He first examines patterns of traditional lifeway continuity among the Ojibwa, demonstrating their ability to maintain seasonal mobility up to the mid-nineteenth century and their adaptive response to its loss. He then looks at the experience of refugee Delawares, who settled among the Ojibwa as a missionary-sponsored community yet managed to maintain an identity distinct from missionary influences. And he shows how the archaeological history of the Six Nations Iroquois reflected patterns of negotiating emergent colonialism when they returned to the region in the 1780s, exploring how families managed tradition and the contemporary colonial world to develop innovative ways of revising and maintaining identity.
The Archaeology of Native-Lived Colonialism convincingly utilizes historical archaeology to link the Native experience of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the deeper history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century interactions and with pre-European times. It shows how these Native communities succeeded in retaining cohesiveness through centuries of foreign influence and material innovations by maintaining ancient, adaptive social processes that both incorporated European ideas and reinforced historically understood notions of self and community.
Papers by Neal Ferris
Archaeologies, Mar 3, 2020
In Canada archaeology sits between colonial and contemporary reconciled notions of heritage, and ... more In Canada archaeology sits between colonial and contemporary reconciled notions of heritage, and relationships between the descendant colonial State and Indigenous sovereigns. State-regulated Archaeological Resource Management (ARM) has slowly begun to shift away from archaeologistcentric values, as that management becomes less about preserving the material past, and more about fiduciary State obligations towards Indigenous sovereign rights over this heritage. These changes are also slowly destabilizing the role and authority of archaeologists in ARM: from experts and value makers of archaeological stuff to servicing other societal values within this contested material heritage. These changes have significant implications for how archaeology is understood by Canadian society to ''make meaning'' of human-material experiences in the past and present. Feeding into both old angsts and new anxieties over archaeological authority and the ''rightness'' of an archaeological ontology, current discourse invites the question: Is there a place for an informed, reflexive archaeological meaning-making within a resituated heritage conservation regime, and can it contribute to a State/Indigenous Sovereign-based archaeological management? This paper considers archaeology at a time when that practice appears to be moving beyond archaeological sensibilities, and the limits of archaeological ways of knowing are being expanded by other ways of knowing. ________________________________________________________________ Résumé: Au Canada, l'archéologie s'inscrit entre les notions d'un patrimoine réconciliant le colonial et le contemporain, et les relations entre l'état colonial descendant et les souverains autochtones. La Gestion des ressources archéologiques
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
Canadian Geographer, Jan 15, 2019
Anthropologists and archaeologists are well-situated to study the cultural dimensions of borders ... more Anthropologists and archaeologists are well-situated to study the cultural dimensions of borders including identity, ethnicity, and material culture. Borders between Indigenous groups in the past in the Lower Great Lakes region were porous and in motion. Archaeological examination of borders provides a long-term perspective that aids in understanding the fluid nature of borders. Borders, boundaries, frontiers, and borderlands are complex things and processes which have become important foci in social sciences over the last two decades. Using archaeological border theory, grounded in anthropological border theory, which focuses on the cultural dimensions of borders, the nature and function of borders and boundaries in the archaeological record of societies indigenous to the Lower Great Lakes can be explored. An archaeological border theory examines how notions of identity, ethnicity, and material culture interplay with borders, allowing for more complex interpretations of archaeological materials and sites. Applying this theory to archaeological evidence from the interaction zones, or borderlands, between archaeologically defined Late Woodland traditions illustrates how these concepts can lead to more complete understandings of the way people lived in the past. Examining borders in the past allows social scientists to recognize their historically situated, fluid nature and will lead to greater consideration of the socially constructed nature of borders in the present.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 27, 2014
McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2013
McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2013
Revista de arqueología americana, 1995
RefDoc Bienvenue - Welcome. Refdoc est un service / is powered by. ...
Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America
American Anthropologist, 2010
Working with and for Ancestors, 2020
Raw data for the Liahn I [AcHo-1] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology... more Raw data for the Liahn I [AcHo-1] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Rethinking Colonial Pasts through Archaeology explores the archaeologies of daily living left by ... more Rethinking Colonial Pasts through Archaeology explores the archaeologies of daily living left by the indigenous and other displaced peoples impacted by European colonial expansion over the last 600 years. This new, comparative focus on the archaeology of indigenous and colonized life has emerged from the gap in conceptual frames of reference between the archaeologies of pre-contact indigenous peoples, and the post-contact archaeologies of the global European experience. Case studies from North America, Australia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Ireland significantly revise conventional historical narratives of those interactions, their presumed impacts, and their ongoing relevance for the material, social, economic, and political lives and identities of contemporary indigenous and other peoples (e.g. metis or mixed ancestry families, and other displaced or colonized communities).
The volume provides a synthetic overview of the trends emerging from this research, contextualizing regional studies in relation to the broader theoretical contributions they reveal, demonstrating how this area of study is contributing to an archaeology practiced and interpreted beyond conceptual constraints such as pre versus post contact, indigenous versus European, history versus archaeology, and archaeologist versus descendant. In addition, the work featured here underscores how this revisionist archaeological perspective challenges dominant tropes that persist in the conventional colonial histories of descendant colonial nation states, and contributes to a de-colonizing of that past in the present. The implications this has for archaeological practice, and for the contemporary descendants of colonized peoples, brings a relevance and immediacy to these archaeological studies that resonates with, and problemetizes, contested claims to a global archaeological heritage.
1990. Occasional Publications of the London Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society Number ... more 1990. Occasional Publications of the London Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society Number 5. London, Ontario.
From the Flier: Colonialism may have significantly changed the history of North America, but its... more From the Flier:
Colonialism may have significantly changed the history of North America, but its impact on Native Americans has been greatly misunderstood. In this book, Neal Ferris offers alternative explanations of colonial encounters that emphasize continuity as well as change affecting Native behaviors. He examines how communities from three aboriginal nations in what is now southwestern Ontario negotiated the changes that accompanied the arrival of Europeans and maintained a cultural continuity with their pasts that has been too often overlooked in conventional “master narrative” histories of contact.
In reconsidering Native adaptation and resistance to colonial British rule, Ferris reviews five centuries of interaction that are usually read as a single event viewed through the lens of historical bias. He first examines patterns of traditional lifeway continuity among the Ojibwa, demonstrating their ability to maintain seasonal mobility up to the mid-nineteenth century and their adaptive response to its loss. He then looks at the experience of refugee Delawares, who settled among the Ojibwa as a missionary-sponsored community yet managed to maintain an identity distinct from missionary influences. And he shows how the archaeological history of the Six Nations Iroquois reflected patterns of negotiating emergent colonialism when they returned to the region in the 1780s, exploring how families managed tradition and the contemporary colonial world to develop innovative ways of revising and maintaining identity.
The Archaeology of Native-Lived Colonialism convincingly utilizes historical archaeology to link the Native experience of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the deeper history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century interactions and with pre-European times. It shows how these Native communities succeeded in retaining cohesiveness through centuries of foreign influence and material innovations by maintaining ancient, adaptive social processes that both incorporated European ideas and reinforced historically understood notions of self and community.
Archaeologies, Mar 3, 2020
In Canada archaeology sits between colonial and contemporary reconciled notions of heritage, and ... more In Canada archaeology sits between colonial and contemporary reconciled notions of heritage, and relationships between the descendant colonial State and Indigenous sovereigns. State-regulated Archaeological Resource Management (ARM) has slowly begun to shift away from archaeologistcentric values, as that management becomes less about preserving the material past, and more about fiduciary State obligations towards Indigenous sovereign rights over this heritage. These changes are also slowly destabilizing the role and authority of archaeologists in ARM: from experts and value makers of archaeological stuff to servicing other societal values within this contested material heritage. These changes have significant implications for how archaeology is understood by Canadian society to ''make meaning'' of human-material experiences in the past and present. Feeding into both old angsts and new anxieties over archaeological authority and the ''rightness'' of an archaeological ontology, current discourse invites the question: Is there a place for an informed, reflexive archaeological meaning-making within a resituated heritage conservation regime, and can it contribute to a State/Indigenous Sovereign-based archaeological management? This paper considers archaeology at a time when that practice appears to be moving beyond archaeological sensibilities, and the limits of archaeological ways of knowing are being expanded by other ways of knowing. ________________________________________________________________ Résumé: Au Canada, l'archéologie s'inscrit entre les notions d'un patrimoine réconciliant le colonial et le contemporain, et les relations entre l'état colonial descendant et les souverains autochtones. La Gestion des ressources archéologiques
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
Canadian Geographer, Jan 15, 2019
Anthropologists and archaeologists are well-situated to study the cultural dimensions of borders ... more Anthropologists and archaeologists are well-situated to study the cultural dimensions of borders including identity, ethnicity, and material culture. Borders between Indigenous groups in the past in the Lower Great Lakes region were porous and in motion. Archaeological examination of borders provides a long-term perspective that aids in understanding the fluid nature of borders. Borders, boundaries, frontiers, and borderlands are complex things and processes which have become important foci in social sciences over the last two decades. Using archaeological border theory, grounded in anthropological border theory, which focuses on the cultural dimensions of borders, the nature and function of borders and boundaries in the archaeological record of societies indigenous to the Lower Great Lakes can be explored. An archaeological border theory examines how notions of identity, ethnicity, and material culture interplay with borders, allowing for more complex interpretations of archaeological materials and sites. Applying this theory to archaeological evidence from the interaction zones, or borderlands, between archaeologically defined Late Woodland traditions illustrates how these concepts can lead to more complete understandings of the way people lived in the past. Examining borders in the past allows social scientists to recognize their historically situated, fluid nature and will lead to greater consideration of the socially constructed nature of borders in the present.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 27, 2014
McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2013
McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, Oct 1, 2013
Revista de arqueología americana, 1995
RefDoc Bienvenue - Welcome. Refdoc est un service / is powered by. ...
Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America
American Anthropologist, 2010
Working with and for Ancestors, 2020
Raw data for the Liahn I [AcHo-1] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology... more Raw data for the Liahn I [AcHo-1] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Raw data for the Wolfe Creek [AcHm-3] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoeco... more Raw data for the Wolfe Creek [AcHm-3] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Raw data for the Van Bemmel [AcHm-31] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoeco... more Raw data for the Van Bemmel [AcHm-31] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Raw data for the Robson Road [AaHp-20] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoec... more Raw data for the Robson Road [AaHp-20] vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
When you leave a place you’ve been a part of for a long time, you can find yourself going through... more When you leave a place you’ve been a part of for a long time, you can find yourself going through a period of discombobulation, during which you start to think that much of what you had previously accepted as “normal” and the way things are supposed to work were really rather foreign and bizarre. Nowhere did this seem more true for me then when I left the world of archaeological heritage conservation, where3 i had worked for 20 years as a bureaucratic archaeologist. In particular, the social dynamic between consultant and bureaucrat is a truly fascinating and slightly disturbing dynamic fueled by equal parts venal self-interests, clueless understandings of each other, and commonly adhered to lies - or assumptions - about he way the world works that, in retrospect, are delusions about the place of archaeology - and archaeologist - in State heritage conservation regimes.
Archaeology has been increasingly successful over the last four decades in managing and recoverin... more Archaeology has been increasingly successful over the last four decades in managing and recovering that portion of the archaeological record that otherwise would have been destroyed by land development. In Ontario the scale of this success has been staggering, but neither practitioners nor regulators have been able to find the means to sustain innovative research on the largely inaccessible materials and information that has accumulated as the result of legislated mitigation. We describe plans for a sustainable archaeological practice that closely links conservation with the capacity for ongoing research on the accumulated archaeological record. The result validates the aim of “preserving the past” implicit in the commercial harvest of archaeological remains found on development land. We describe plans for facilities to achieve a capacity for sustainable archaeology, which will be realized in the near future as the result of our institutions obtaining funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Research Fund. Our plan is to develop an integrated archaeological practice - one that is also fully inclusive of descendant communities - that will ensure the long-term sustainability of research and the generation of knowledge the compliments the day to day accumulation of materials and field observations.
Wednesdays 9:30-12:30, Room SSC 2257 Neal Ferris Office: SSC 3331 Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-... more Wednesdays 9:30-12:30, Room SSC 2257 Neal Ferris Office: SSC 3331 Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-4:00. I will also be in the department one other day each week, typically Fridays, although the following Monday might need to serve as a substitute. I am also over at Sustainable Archaeology/The Museum of Ontario Archaeology other days during the week (1600 Attawandaron Road off of Wonderland near Fanshawe Park Road), and am happy to meet people there, too. So if you'd like to meet with me other than Wednesday afternoons, please email to schedule a time that works for your schedule and mine and we can hook up when I am otherwise on campus, or at the Museum, if you'd like.
2018 Permit Report of fieldwork and archival research, prepared for the Nevis Historical and Cons... more 2018 Permit Report of fieldwork and archival research, prepared for the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society
Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 2018