Barnard College
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Field Methods in Archaeology (ANTH 2011) is an immersive summer course involving archaeological fieldwork in New Mexico. The next three iterations of the course (at least) will be focused on the documentation of the history of traditional dry-farming and acequia-farming practices in northern New Mexico, working in collaboration with local indigenous and Hispano communities. Students learn about indigenous philosophies of care for the landscape and Hispano notions of "thinking like a watershed," while gathering data on pre-colonial and early colonial agricultural features to be used in an upcoming water rights case by Picuris Pueblo. Students who participate in the program live in a small rural agricultural community in an arid landscape where consciousness about the local use of resources is of paramount concern. Local histories of acequia activism and indigenous land and water struggles permeate life the community and are incorporated into the curriculum through readings, interviews, and community work projects like traditional mudding of (highly sustainable) adobe buildings at Picuris Pueblo.