The Stones We Carry: Avocational Science, Epistemics, and Identity in New England’s Cultural Stone Features Debate

Kitty -O'Riordan from UConn, is defending her PhD Thesis on the debate about Ceremonial Stone Landscapes. It should be of great general interest. Please note the date and the Zoom link.

Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense of Kitty O’Riordan

The Stones We Carry: Avocational Science, Epistemics, and Identity in 

New England’s Cultural Stone Features Debate 

Friday, November 10th, 2023

2-4 PM

McHugh Hall Room 301 or streamed online via Zoom:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89235321183

The debate over the purpose and provenance of particularly unusual and enigmatic built stone features, traditionally labeled as remnants of 18th and 19th century agricultural activity, has intensified in the decades since avocationalists and Indigenous groups identified them as Ceremonial Stone Landscapes (CSLs). While avocational archaeologists have been creating knowledge about these features in New England for more than a century, their methods, values, social organization, and motivations as a unique social world are severely understudied and often misrepresented. This dissertation applies insights from science and technology studies (STS) and the sociology of amateurism to address this gap and to identify the major stakeholders, themes, and issues within this debate. 

Using data from 16 in-depth interviews, an extensive survey of the professional and avocational literature, and participant observation at public talks, conferences, and research excursions, I investigate three interrelated categories: 1) the dynamics between professional and avocational researchers and the structure and character of the avocational community; 2) the methodological practices, epistemic challenges, and processes for evaluating knowledge that emerge from this area of study; and 3) the motivations, worldviews, and identities that inform avocational researchers’ dedication to what they understand as vital contours of a complex and shared heritage. This is considered alongside the history of this debate, relational and posthuman archaeologies, Indigenous and non-Native relations, and growing environmental anxieties. 

In contrast to portrayals of this community as homogenous, unscientific, and motivated exclusively by political goals, I argue that avocational researchers conduct meaningful work on the local level that unites a diverse group of stakeholders to achieve common goals. They cultivate broad networks through efficient communication and strong values; develop creative methodologies to overcome epistemic uncertainty; reflect deeply on their ethical and ideological motivations and relationships with others; and seek out collaborative opportunities to protect these landscapes and the alternative ways of being in the world they contain. A clearer understanding of the avocational community and this debate more broadly may facilitate more effective, community-based, democratic, and ontologically plural approaches to heritage preservation in an entangled and postcolonial New England.