Alice Beck Kehoe

In Truth and Power in American Archaeology, archaeologist and ethnohistorian Alice Beck Kehoe presents her key writings where archaeological fieldwork, ethnohistorical analysis, postcolonial anthropology, and feminist analysis intersect to provide students and scholars of anthropology an overview of the methodological and ethical issues in Americanist archaeology in the last thirty years. Truth and Power in American Archaeology brings together Kehoe’s broad-ranging, influential articles and previously unpublished lectures to explore archaeology’s history, methods, concepts, and larger imbrication in knowledge production in the West. With her contextualizing introductions, these articles argue for recognition of scientific method in the historical sciences of archaeology, paleontology, and geology; empirically grounded understandings of American First Nations’ ways of life and scientific knowledge; discussion of archaeology as expanded histories; a view of American archaeology’s social contexts of Manifest Destiny ideology, Cold War politics, and patriarchy; and a postcolonial historicist understanding of America’s real deep-time history and of the imperialist racism entrenched in mainstream American archaeology.

In Truth and Power in American Archaeology, archaeologist and ethnohistorian Alice Beck Kehoe presents her key writings where archaeological fieldwork, ethnohistorical analysis, postcolonial anthropology, and feminist analysis intersect to provide students and scholars of anthropology an overview of the methodological and ethical issues in Americanist archaeology in the last thirty years. Truth and Power in American Archaeology brings together Kehoe’s broad-ranging, influential articles and previously unpublished lectures to explore archaeology’s history, methods, concepts, and larger imbrication in knowledge production in the West. With her contextualizing introductions, these articles argue for recognition of scientific method in the historical sciences of archaeology, paleontology, and geology; empirically grounded understandings of American First Nations’ ways of life and scientific knowledge; discussion of archaeology as expanded histories; a view of American archaeology’s social contexts of Manifest Destiny ideology, Cold War politics, and patriarchy; and a postcolonial historicist understanding of America’s real deep-time history and of the imperialist racism entrenched in mainstream American archaeology.

Humans is a concise, jargon-free introduction to four-field anthropology. This book outlines and breaks down a complex discipline to identify some of the most important and relevant questions in anthropology. It provides students with an understanding of the unity of the human species, the adaptation of societies to their environments (physical and political), and an appreciation of the power of socialization into a culture. The authors ensure that the book takes a balanced approach to all four fields, covering topics such as cultural relativism, humans as a biological species, primates, communicating, economics, and religion. Pedagogical features include a study guide and notes for instructors. This second edition is fully updated with brand new material on evolution, genetics, and archaeology to reflect the latest research and recent changes in the field. This book is an ideal introduction for students embarking on an anthropology course for the first time.

Humans is a concise, jargon-free introduction to four-field anthropology. This book outlines and breaks down a complex discipline to identify some of the most important and relevant questions in anthropology. It provides students with an understanding of the unity of the human species, the adaptation of societies to their environments (physical and political), and an appreciation of the power of socialization into a culture. The authors ensure that the book takes a balanced approach to all four fields, covering topics such as cultural relativism, humans as a biological species, primates, communicating, economics, and religion. Pedagogical features include a study guide and notes for instructors. This second edition is fully updated with brand new material on evolution, genetics, and archaeology to reflect the latest research and recent changes in the field. This book is an ideal introduction for students embarking on an anthropology course for the first time.

Named a 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Girl Archaeologist recounts Alice Kehoe’s life, begun in an era very different from the twenty-first century in which she retired as an honored elder archaeologist. She persisted against entrenched patriarchy in her childhood, at Harvard University, and as she did fieldwork with her husband in the northern plains. A senior male professor attempted to quash Kehoe’s career by raping her. Her Harvard professors refused to allow her to write a dissertation in archaeology. Universities paid her less than her male counterparts. Her husband refused to participate in housework or childcare. Working in archaeology and in the histories of American First Nations, Kehoe published a series of groundbreaking books and articles. Although she was denied a conventional career, through her unconventional breadth of research and her empathy with First Nations people she gained a wide circle of collaborators and colleagues. Throughout her career Kehoe found and fostered a sisterhood of feminists-strong, bright women archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnohistorians who have been essential to the field. Girl Archaeologist is the story of how one woman pursued a professional career in a male-dominated field during a time of great change in American middle-class expectations for women.

Written in an easy-to-read, narrative format, this volume provides the most comprehensive coverage of North American Indians from earliest evidence through 1990. It shows Indians as "a people with history" and not as primitives, covering current ideological issues and political situations including treaty rights, sovereignty, and repatriation. A must-read for anyone interested in North American Indian history. This is a comprehensive and thought-provoking approach to the history of the native peoples of North America (including Mexico and Canada) and their civilizations. For Native American courses taught in anthropology, history and Native American Studies.

North America Before the European Invasions tells the histories of North American peoples from first migrations in the Late Glacial Age, sixteen thousand years ago or more, to the European invasions following Columbus’s arrival. Contrary to invaders’ propaganda, North America was no wilderness, and its peoples had developed a variety of sophisticated resource uses, including intensive agriculture and cities in Mexico and the Midwest. Written in an easy-flowing style, the book is a true history although based primarily on archeological material. It reflects current emphasis within archaeology on rejecting the notion of “pre”-history, instead combining archaeology with post-Columbian ethnographies and histories to present the long histories of North America’s native peoples, most of them still here and still part of the continent’s history.

North America Before the European Invasions tells the histories of North American peoples from first migrations in the Late Glacial Age, sixteen thousand years ago or more, to the European invasions following Columbus’s arrival. Contrary to invaders’ propaganda, North America was no wilderness, and its peoples had developed a variety of sophisticated resource uses, including intensive agriculture and cities in Mexico and the Midwest. Written in an easy-flowing style, the book is a true history although based primarily on archeological material. It reflects current emphasis within archaeology on rejecting the notion of “pre”-history, instead combining archaeology with post-Columbian ethnographies and histories to present the long histories of North America’s native peoples, most of them still here and still part of the continent’s history.

Written in an easy-to-read, narrative format, this volume provides the most comprehensive coverage of North American Indians from earliest evidence through 1990. It shows Indians as "a people with history" and not as primitives, covering current ideological issues and political situations including treaty rights, sovereignty, and repatriation. A must-read for anyone interested in North American Indian history. This is a comprehensive and thought-provoking approach to the history of the native peoples of North America (including Mexico and Canada) and their civilizations. For Native American courses taught in anthropology, history and Native American Studies.

Beginning with the immigrants from Asia, through inventions of agriculture, cities and kingdoms, American First Nations are integral to the history of the United States. They explored the continent, pioneered its waterways and mountain passes, cleared forests, irrigated deserts, and ranched its great plains. Invading Europeans justifies their conquests by denying the evidence of American Indian civilisations. Using her familiarity with the archaeological remains and remnants, Alice Kehoe builds a fascinating prehistory, highlighting the research puzzles along the way. This book presents an enthralling look at the depth and diversity of American history - before the Europeans and the deadly epidemics they brought with them decimated whole nations.

Felix Cohen, the lawyer and scholar who wrote the Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1942), was enormously influential in American Indian policy making. Yet histories of the Indian New Deal, a 1934 program of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, neglect Cohen and focus on John Collier, commissioner of Indian affairs within the Department of the Interior (DOI). Alice Beck Kehoe examines why Cohen, who as DOI assistant solicitor wrote the legislation for the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) and Indian Claims Commission Act (1946), has received less attention. Even more neglected was the contribution Cohen's wife, Lucy Kramer Cohen, an anthropologist trained by Franz Boas, made to the process. Kehoe argues that, due to anti-Semitism in 1930s America, Cohen could not speak for his legislation before Congress, and that Collier, an upper-class WASP, became the spokesman as well as the administrator. According to the author, historians of the Indian New Deal have not given due weight to Cohen's work, nor have they recognized its foundation in his liberal secular Jewish culture. Both Felix and Lucy Cohen shared a belief in the moral duty of mitzvah, creating a commitment to the ""true and the just"" that was rooted in their Jewish intellectual and moral heritage, and their Social Democrat principles. A Passion for the True and Just takes a fresh look at the Indian New Deal and the radical reversal of US Indian policies it caused, moving from ethnocide to retention of Indian homelands. Shifting attention to the Jewish tradition of moral obligation that served as a foundation for Felix and Lucy Kramer Cohen (and her professor Franz Boas), the book discusses Cohen's landmark contributions to the principle of sovereignty that so significantly influenced American legal philosophy.

Until recently the theory that people could have traversed large expanses of ocean in prehistoric times was considered pseudoscience. But recent discoveries in places as disparate as Australia, Labrador, Crete, California, and Chile open the possibility that ancient oceans were highways, not barriers, and that ancient people possessed the means and motives to traverse them. In this brief, thought-provoking, but controversial book Alice Kehoe considers the existing evidence in her reassessment of ancient sailing. Her book-critically analyzes the growing body of evidence on prehistoric sailing to help scholars and students evaluate a highly controversial hypothesis;-examines evidence from archaeology, anthropology, botany, art, mythology, linguistics, maritime technology, architecture, paleopathology, and other disciplines;-presents her evidence in student-accessible language to allow instructors to use this work for teaching critical thinking skills.

Until recently the theory that people could have traversed large expanses of ocean in prehistoric times was considered pseudoscience. But recent discoveries in places as disparate as Australia, Labrador, Crete, California, and Chile open the possibility that ancient oceans were highways, not barriers, and that ancient people possessed the means and motives to traverse them. In this brief, thought-provoking, but controversial book Alice Kehoe considers the existing evidence in her reassessment of ancient sailing. Her book-critically analyzes the growing body of evidence on prehistoric sailing to help scholars and students evaluate a highly controversial hypothesis;-examines evidence from archaeology, anthropology, botany, art, mythology, linguistics, maritime technology, architecture, paleopathology, and other disciplines;-presents her evidence in student-accessible language to allow instructors to use this work for teaching critical thinking skills.

A contemporary history of one of the best-known American Indian nations. Written in collaboration with Blackfoot tribal historians and educators, Amskapi Pikuni: The Blackfeet People portrays a strong native nation fighting for two centuries against domination by Anglo invaders. The Blackfeet endured bungling, corrupt, and drunken agents; racist schoolteachers; and a federal Indian Bureau that failed to disburse millions of dollars owed to the tribe. Located on a reservation in Montana cut and cut again to give land to white ranchers, the Blackfeet adapted to complete loss of their staple food, bison-a collapse of what had been a sustainable economy throughout their history. Despite all of these challenges, the nation held to its values and continues to proudly preserve its culture.

Atlantis, ancient astronauts, and pyramid power. Archaeologists are perennially bombarded with questions about the “mysteries” of the past. They are also constantly addressing more realistic controversies: origins of the First Americans, the ownership of antiquities, and national claims to historical territories. Alice Beck Kehoe offers to introductory students a method of evaluating and assessing these claims about the past in this reader-friendly, concise text. She shows how to use the methods of science to challenge the legitimacy of pseudoscientific proclamations and develop reasonable interpretations on controversial issues. Not one to shy away from controversy herself, Kehoe takes some stands—on transpacific migration, shamanism, the Kensington Runestone—which will challenge instructor and students alike, and foster class discussion.

Atlantis, ancient astronauts, and pyramid power. Archaeologists are perennially bombarded with questions about the “mysteries” of the past. They are also constantly addressing more realistic controversies: origins of the First Americans, the ownership of antiquities, and national claims to historical territories. Alice Beck Kehoe offers to introductory students a method of evaluating and assessing these claims about the past in this reader-friendly, concise text. She shows how to use the methods of science to challenge the legitimacy of pseudoscientific proclamations and develop reasonable interpretations on controversial issues. Not one to shy away from controversy herself, Kehoe takes some stands—on transpacific migration, shamanism, the Kensington Runestone—which will challenge instructor and students alike, and foster class discussion.

Beginning with the immigrants from Asia, through inventions of agriculture, cities and kingdoms, American First Nations are integral to the history of the United States. They explored the continent, pioneered its waterways and mountain passes, cleared forests, irrigated deserts, and ranched its great plains. Invading Europeans justifies their conquests by denying the evidence of American Indian civilisations. Using her familiarity with the archaeological remains and remnants, Alice Kehoe builds a fascinating prehistory, highlighting the research puzzles along the way. This book presents an enthralling look at the depth and diversity of American history - before the Europeans and the deadly epidemics they brought with them decimated whole nations.

First published in 1998. The Land of Prehistory reveals the powerful ideological function American archaeology has naively served, from the discipline's construction in Victorian societal reform movements to the present. Alice Beck Kehoe chronicles major movements and influences such as the support of racist Spencerian evolutionism and Manifest Destiny ideologies, and the 1960s New Archaeology pandering to Big Science money. She concludes with a discussion of the recent revolutionary shift to multicultural voices within the field.