Archaeology, diaspora and decolonization

Archaeologists in settler societies need to find theoretically well-founded ways of understanding the sociopolitical milieux in which they work if they are to deal sensibly and sensitively with the colonizers as well as the colonized in their communities. This article explores one avenue that the author has found helpful in a number of contexts. He advances the proposition that, with certain qualifications, the social conditions of settler nations might usefully be approached as the products of a single social condition - diaspora - in a manifestation that is unique to such societies because it positions indigenous peoples as well as settlers as diasporic.