Data and their 'Afterlives': knowledge production and consumption in community-based research

Abstract

This chapter contributes to unsettling archaeology by addressing the asymmetry in community-based research, which is the ‘meeting-ground’ of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, which needs to be acknowledged, recognised and addressed in academic research. This chapter is based on our research on animal trapping techniques by indigenous people in Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh. Keeping ‘data’ as the anchor of our chapter, we discuss its various forms and transformations from the site of knowledge production to its consumption in the academic world. We track the ‘data’ and its ‘afterlives’ and show how data continues to shape the field, knowledge production and consumption in community-based research. As both ‘outsiders’ and ‘insiders’ to the study area, we unfold the multiple dilemmas of our positionalities and the power dynamics that make data an important value-added product for academics. Data sovereignty becomes crucial in community-based research where indigenous knowledge systems are involved. Data collected from indigenous societies gain more power and become a resource for future research projects, making the ‘afterlives’ of data more eventful and beneficial for academia than the indigenous peoples. This asymmetry needs to be acknowledged, recognised and addressed in community-based research.