Pardis is an archaeologist, specializing in Caribbean and community archaeology. She has worked on archaeological projects and in museums in the United States, UK, Caribbean, and Central America. Her PhD project is based in St. Croix, USVI and focuses on the materalities of Danish colonialism, and how communities on the island engage with and experience sites and objects associated with the Danish colonial period. Address: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
BEADS: Journal for the Society of Bead Researchers, 2021
The blue beads of St. Eustatius are a famous symbol of the island’s heritage, provoking both posi... more The blue beads of St. Eustatius are a famous symbol of the island’s heritage, provoking both positive and negative emotional responses in local stakeholders. Archaeologists have often encountered oral historical accounts explaining the functions of the blue beads in colonial society. These accounts have never, however, been thoroughly recorded, investigated, or integrated with other sources of data until now. Oral historical interviews conducted in 2016 provide detailed information on the role of the blue beads in enslaved and free communities. We therefore discuss these findings and how they relate to archaeological evidence on the island as well as elsewhere in the Americas and West Africa. Studies like this one are important because they encourage a decolonizing approach to archaeology through the involvement of local people in the interpretation of their own heritage. It is hoped that this approach will become standard throughout the Caribbean in the near future.
BEADS: Journal for the Society of Bead Researchers, 2021
The blue beads of St. Eustatius are a famous symbol of the island’s heritage, provoking both posi... more The blue beads of St. Eustatius are a famous symbol of the island’s heritage, provoking both positive and negative emotional responses in local stakeholders. Archaeologists have often encountered oral historical accounts explaining the functions of the blue beads in colonial society. These accounts have never, however, been thoroughly recorded, investigated, or integrated with other sources of data until now. Oral historical interviews conducted in 2016 provide detailed information on the role of the blue beads in enslaved and free communities. We therefore discuss these findings and how they relate to archaeological evidence on the island as well as elsewhere in the Americas and West Africa. Studies like this one are important because they encourage a decolonizing approach to archaeology through the involvement of local people in the interpretation of their own heritage. It is hoped that this approach will become standard throughout the Caribbean in the near future.
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Papers by Pardis Zahedi