Caroline Bird (archaeologist)

Caroline Bird is an Australian archaeologist and educator. She specialises in women's studies,[1] cultural heritage, and indigenous studies[2] in the archaeological context, specifically early Australian archaeology. Some of her other focuses include lithic technology and art.[3]

Caroline Bird
Alma materUniversity of Western Australia
Scientific career
FieldsArchaeology
ThesisPrehistoric lithic resource utilisation: a case study from the Southwest of Western Australia
Doctoral advisorSylvia Hallam and Charles Amsden

Bird has conducted archaeological fieldwork and laboratory research in the UK, Europe, Australia, and Egypt. Bird works on sites dating to various periods, ranging from Neolithic to historical Australia.[4][5]

Education

Bird studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University, Deakin University, and the University of Western Australia.[6] She received her BA in archaeology and anthropology (honors) from Cambridge University in 1977, followed by a Masters in Science and Technical Studies at Deakin University in 1997. Bird then went on to pursue a Ph.D. in archaeology at the University of Western Australia and was awarded her degree in 1985. Bird's doctoral thesis is entitled "Prehistoric lithic resource utilisation: a case study from the Southwest of Western Australia".

Career

Bird has taught archaeology and cultural heritage university and technical education (TAFE) classes in Western Australia and Victoria. Bird also developed and oversaw the site officer training program at the Victoria Archaeological Survey, and helped to expand the school curriculum regarding Aboriginal and Intercultural Studies in Western Australia.[6]

In February 2013, Bird joined Archae-aus, an organization based in Perth, Western Australia committed to providing specialist historical and maritime heritage consultation and education services.[6] Within the organization, Bird has been involved in public presentations and publication (producing a book on the Archae-aus project 'Kakutungutanta to Warrie Outcamp - 40,000 Years in Nyiyaparli Country') and continues to conduct fieldwork as a senior project officer.[6] Bird has also worked as a member of the AACAI (Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc) in Western Australia.

Scientific contributions

Bird's most widely cited and praised article, "Woman the Toolmaker: Evidence for Women's Use and Manufacture of Flaked Stone Tools in Australia and New Guinea," is heralded by the scientific community as a feminist approach to archaeology. In this 1993 publication, Bird confronts and discredits the once commonly held gender-role assumption that "women hunt and men gather."[1] This piece helped to inspire feminist archaeological theory[7][8][9][10] and fuel discussion concerning the prevalence of male bias in the research process, inadequate ethnographic accounts, and the discipline of archaeology as a whole.

Equally impactful, however, is Bird's work on radiocarbon chronologies. Bird and co-author David Frankel have written extensively on dating sequences in Australia, illuminating new evidence regarding early colonization and population histories and distributions.[11][4]

Most recently, Bird has been involved in heritage and indigenous studies research in connection to her membership with Archae-aus. In her 2016 article, "Reflections on CB08-500 Alternative Narratives, Aboriginal Heritage and Significance Assessment in Western Australia," Bird argues for the importance of incorporating indigenous narratives into the archaeological research process.[2] Bird asserts that such inclusivity in archaeological reporting is necessary to progress the discipline and can also aid in engaging a wider audience in discussions concerning heritage and community values.

Awards and recognitions
  • John Mulvaney Book Award from the Australian Archaeological Association (2015, for Kakutungutanta to Warrie Outcamp - 40,000 Years in Nyiyaparli Country, received along with Edward McDonald)[12][13]
  • Best Poster at the Australian Archaeological Association Awards Conference (2016, won for "Issues of Scale and Resolution in Interpreting Surface Artefact Scatter in the Inland Pilbara", received along with Jim Rhoads, Fiona Hook and McDonald)[14]

Select publications
  • Bird, C. and D. Frankel. 1991. "Problems in Constructing a Prehistorical Regional Sequence: Holocene South-east Australia." World Archaeology. 23 (2): 179-192. doi:10.1080/00438243.1991.9980170.
  • Bird, C. 1993. "Woman the Toolmaker: Evidence for Women's Use and Manufacture of Flaked Stone Tools in Australia and New Guinea." 22-30.
  • Bird, Caroline; Frankel, David; University of Queensland. Anthropology Museum (1996), An archaeology of Gariwerd : from Pleistocene to Holocene in Western Victoria, Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland, ISBN 978-0-909611-50-7
  • Bird, C., A. Dias, F. Hook, M. Jimenez-Lozano, H. Tierney. 2014. "Time and Efficiency in Data Recovery: An Experiment Comparing Wet and Dry Sieving in Pilbara Rockshelter Excavations." JAACA. 2: 1-8. ISSN 2202-7890.
  • Bird, C. and J. Rhoads. 2015. "Rockshelters as Indicators of Mobility Patterns in the Inland Pilbara." Archaeology in Oceania. 50 (S1): 37-46. doi:10.1002/arco.5055.
  • Bird, C., F. Hook, J. Rhodes. 2016. "Reflections on CB08-500 Alternative Narratives, Aboriginal Heritage and Significance Assessment in Western Australia Reflections on CB08-500." Hunter Gatherer Research. 2: 327-243. doi:10.3828/hgr.2016.23. ISSN: 476-4261.
  • Frankel, D. and C. Bird. 2013. "Integrating Hunter-gatherer Sites, Environments, Technology and Art in Western Victoria." In Archaeology in Environment and Technology: Intersections and Transformations edited by D. Frankel, J. Webb, and S. Lawrence. 69-43.

References
  1. Bird, Caroline (1993). Woman the toolmaker: evidence for women's use and manufacture of flaked stone tools in Australia and New Guinea. OCLC 1011261262.
  2. Bird, Caroline; Hook and Rhodes (2016). "Reflections on CB08-500 Alternative narratives, Aboriginal heritage and significance assessment in Western Australia Reflections on CB08-500". Hunter Gatherer Research. 2. doi:10.3828/hgr.2016.23. S2CID 134007148.
  3. Frankel, David; Webb, Jennifer M.; Lawrence, Susan (eds.). Archaeology in environment and technology intersections and transformations. ISBN 9780415832014. OCLC 820119634.
  4. Bird, C. F. M.; Frankel, David (1991). "Chronology and explanation in western Victoria and south-east South Australia". Archaeology in Oceania. 26 (1): 1–16. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.1991.tb00244.x. ISSN 1834-4453.
  5. Bahn, Paul (2014). The History of archaeology : an introduction. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781317999423. OCLC 868491144.
  6. "About us - Cultural Heritage Consultants Perth WA | Archae-aus". Archae Aus. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  7. Sarah Milledge Nelson (2007). Worlds of gender : the archaeology of women's lives around the globe. AltaMira Press. ISBN 9780759110830. OCLC 754652693.
  8. [VNV], Arthur, Kathryn Weedman (2017). The lives of stone tools : crafting the status, skill, and identity of flintknappers. The University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816537136. OCLC 1041460695.
  9. Arthur, Kathryn Weedman (2010-05-19). "Feminine Knowledge and Skill Reconsidered: Women and Flaked Stone Tools". American Anthropologist. 112 (2): 228–243. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01222.x. ISSN 0002-7294.
  10. Moira Donald; Linda Hurcombe, eds. (2002). Gender and material culture in archaeological perspective. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312223986. OCLC 1080756576.
  11. Bird, C. F. M.; Frankel, David; Waarden, Nora van (1998). "New radiocarbon determinations from the Grampians-Gariwerd region, western Victoria". Archaeology in Oceania. 33 (1): 31–36. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.1998.tb00398.x. ISSN 1834-4453.
  12. Bird, Caroline; McDonald, Edward (2015). Kakutungutanta to Warrie Outcamp - 40,000 Years in Nyiyaparli Country. Fremantle. ISBN 9780994229700.
  13. "John Mulvaney Book Award | Australian Archaeological Association | AAA". australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
  14. The University of Western Australia (2016-12-16). "Australian Archaeological Association Conference 2016 Awards". www.research.uwa.edu.au. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
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