Habermas’ notions of communicative action and the lifeworld can be employed to understand how archaeological interpretations of agency can feed into contemporary political emancipatory dialogues. Clifton Plantation, a Bahamian Loyalist plantation that is currently threatened with development, is the center of this discussion. This article provides specific examples of how archaeological interpretations from Clifton have rendered past African lifeworlds accessible and meaningful to African-Americans in the Bahamas and the United States and, in turn, are fueling and sustaining a contemporary political movement led by Bahamians to protect the archaeological site.
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