The aerial panopticon and the ethics of archaeological remote sensing in sacred cultural spaces
Open accessAbstract
Remote sensing technology has become a standard tool for archaeological prospecting. Yet the ethical guidelines associated with the use of these technologies are not well established and are even less-often discussed in published literature. With a nearly unobstructed view of large geographic spaces, aerial and spaceborne remote sensing technology creates an asymmetrical power dynamic between observers and the observed. Here, we explore the power dynamics involved with aerial and spaceborne remote sensing, using Foucault's notion of power and the panopticon. In many other areas of archaeological practice, such power imbalances have been actively confronted by collaborative approaches and community engagement, but remote sensing archaeology has been largely absent from such interventions. We discuss how aerial and spaceborne imagery is perceived by local communities in southwest Madagascar and advocate for a more collaborative approach to remote sensing archaeology that includes local stakeholders and researchers in all levels of data acquisition, analysis, and dissemination.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
Zukin, S., Foucault, M., & Sheridan, A. (1996) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2077073 · Cited by 15,425 · see citing works
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
Lebovits, H. (2018) · Public Integrity · doi:10.1080/10999922.2018.1511671 · Cited by 3,318 · see citing works
Levy, Z. (2020) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315825342-4 · Cited by 3,071 · see citing works
The temporality of the landscape
Ingold, T. (1993) · World Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00438243.1993.9980235 · Cited by 2,830 · see citing works
Landscape : politics and perspectives
Bender, B. (1993) · Cited by 863 · see citing works
Participatory GIS — a people's GIS?
Dunn, C. E. (2007) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1177/0309132507081493 · Cited by 575 · see citing works
Atalay, S. (2019) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520953468 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Galič, M., Timan, T., & Koops, B. (2016) · Philosophy & Technology · doi:10.1007/s13347-016-0219-1 · Cited by 283 · see citing works
Handbook of Landscape Archaeology
David, B., & Thomas, J. (2008) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315427737 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Chen, F., Lasaponara, R., & Masini, N. (2015) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2015.05.003 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Collaborative Archaeologies and Descendant Communities
Colwell, C. (2016) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095937 · Cited by 167 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The ethical quandary surrounding surveillance parallels dilemmas of ‘who controls the past’ (Colwell, 2016), specifically in terms of who is permitted to ‘collect, retain, and use’ largescale datasets derived from aerial and spaceborne sensors (Cohen et al., 2020).”
BackgroundKyem, P. A. K. (2004) · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09401003.x · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Mapping patterns of long-term settlement in Northern Mesopotamia at a large scale
Menze, B. H., & Ur, J. A. (2012) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1115472109 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Ramirez-Gomez, S. O. I., Torres-Vitolas, C. A., Schreckenberg, K., Honzák, M., García, G. S. C., Willcock, S., Palacios, E., Pérez-Miñana, E., Verweij, P. A., & Poppy, G. M. (2015) · Ecosystem Services · doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.009 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Landscape Categories in Yindjibarndi: Ontology, Environment, and Language
Mark, D. M., & Turk, A. G. (2003) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-39923-0_3 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
The Colonising camera: photographs in the making of Namibian history
(1999) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.36-5820 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Αγαπίου, Ά., & Lysandrou, V. (2015) · Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.09.010 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Casana, J. (2020) · Journal of Field Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00934690.2020.1713285 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Historical Ecology of Cultural Keystone Places of the Northwest Coast
Lepofsky, D., Armstrong, C. G., Greening, S., Jackley, J., Carpenter, J., Guernsey, B., Mathews, D. L., & Turner, N. J. (2017) · American Anthropologist · doi:10.1111/aman.12893 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Álvarez Larrain, A., & McCall, M. K. (2019) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-018-9385-z · Cited by 89 · see citing works
GIS, critique, representation and beyond
Hacıgüzeller, P. (2012) · Journal of Social Archaeology · doi:10.1177/1469605312439139 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Camp Delta, Google Earth and the ethics of remote sensing in archaeology
Myers, A. (2010) · World Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00438243.2010.498640 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Have Confidence in the Sea: Maritime Maroons and Fugitive Geographies
Dunnavant, J. P. (2021) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/anti.12695 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Beyond Foucault: New Perspectives on Bentham's Panopticon
Brunon-Ernst, A. (2013) · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Regional-Scale Archaeological Remote Sensing in the Age of Big Data
Casana, J. (2014) · Advances in Archaeological Practice · doi:10.7183/2326-3768.2.3.222 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Gupta, N., Blair, S., & Nicholas, R. (2020) · Journal of Field Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00934690.2020.1713969 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
King, B. H. (2002) · Cartography and Geographic Information Science · doi:10.1559/152304002782064565 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Ethics, New Colonialism, and Lidar Data: A Decade of Lidar in Maya Archaeology
Chase, A. S. Z., Chase, D. Z., & Chase, A. F. (2020) · Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology · doi:10.5334/jcaa.43 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Gogarty, B., & Hagger, M. (2008) · eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) · doi:10.5778/jlis.2011.21.gogarty.1 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Landscape, Experience and GIS: Exploring the Potential for Methodological Dialogue
Rennell, R. (2012) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-012-9144-5 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Situating Madagascar: Indian Ocean dynamics and archaeological histories
Radimilahy, C., & Crossland, Z. (2015) · Azania Archaeological Research in Africa · doi:10.1080/0067270x.2015.1102942 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Using Drones to Study Human Beings: Ethical and Regulatory Issues
Resnik, D. B., & Elliott, K. C. (2018) · Science and Engineering Ethics · doi:10.1007/s11948-018-0032-6 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Drone-Based Participatory Mapping: Examining Local Agricultural Knowledge in the Galapagos
Colloredo-Mansfeld, M., Laso, F., & Arce-Nazario, J. A. (2020) · Drones · doi:10.3390/drones4040062 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa:
Bewley, R., Wilson, A. I., Kennedy, D. L., Mattingly, D. J., Banks, R., Bishop, M., Bradbury, J., Cunliffe, E., Fradley, M., Jennings, R. P., et al. (2016) · Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks · doi:10.2307/jj.15135955.100 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Toward a just and inclusive environmental archaeology of southwest Madagascar
Douglass, K., Morales, E. M. Q., Manahira, G., Fenomanana, F., Samba, R., Lahiniriko, F., Chrisostome, Z. M., Vavisoa, V., Soafiavy, P., Justome, R., et al. (2019) · Journal of Social Archaeology · doi:10.1177/1469605319862072 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Self-citationEthics in Archaeological Lidar
Cohen, A. S., Klassen, S., & Evans, D. H. (2020) · Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology · doi:10.5334/jcaa.48 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Davis, D. S., Andriankaja, V., Carnat, T. L., Chrisostome, Z. M., Colombe, C., Fenomanana, F., Hubertine, L., Justome, R., Lahiniriko, F., Léonce, H., et al. (2020) · Journal of Archaeological Science · doi:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105097 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationWhere the Wind Blows Us: Practicing Critical Community Archaeology in the Canadian North
Lyons, N. (2013) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Digital Archaeological Ethics: Successes and Failures in Disciplinary Attention
Dennis, L. M. (2020) · Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology · doi:10.5334/jcaa.24 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Fisher, M. T., Fradley, M., Flohr, P., Rouhani, B., & Simi, F. (2021) · Archaeological Prospection · doi:10.1002/arp.1816 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Davis, D. S., & Douglass, K. (2020) · African Archaeological Review · doi:10.1007/s10437-020-09373-y · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Self-citationHistorical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa
Douglass, K., Walz, J. R., Morales, E. M. Q., Marcus, R. R., Myers, G. A., & Pollini, J. (2018) · Conservation Biology · doi:10.1111/cobi.13244 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Self-citationArchaeology and Contemporary Warfare
Pollock, S. (2016) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095913 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Picturing Bushmen: the Denver African Expedition of 1925
(1998) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.35-2793 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Evers, S. J. T. M., & Seagle, C. (2012) · Madagascar Conservation & Development · doi:10.4314/mcd.v7i2s.6 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Larraín, A. Á., Greco, C., & Tarragó, M. (2020) · Archaeological Prospection · doi:10.1002/arp.1794 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Geographic Disparity in Machine Intelligence Approaches for Archaeological Remote Sensing Research
Davis, D. S. (2020) · Remote Sensing · doi:10.3390/rs12060921 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationFritz-Vietta, N. V. M., Tahirindraza, H. S., & Stoll‐Kleemann, S. (2017) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.05.034 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Sovereignty and Jurisdiction in Airspace and Outer Space
Oduntan, G. (2011) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203807552 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
COLONIALISM, CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE CAMERA
Ranger, T. O. (2001) · Past & Present · doi:10.1093/past/171.1.203 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Davis, D. S., DiNapoli, R. J., & Douglass, K. (2020) · Geosciences · doi:10.3390/geosciences10080287 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Self-citationSanchez, G. M., Grone, M., Apodaca, A., Byram, R. S., Lopez, V., & Jewett, R. A. (2021) · Remote Sensing · doi:10.3390/rs13020285 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Hobson, M. S. (2019) · Libyan Studies · doi:10.1017/lis.2019.22 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Schmitt, A., Déderix, S., & Crevecoeur, I. (2018) · HAL · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Oduntan, G. (2019) · Geosciences · doi:10.3390/geosciences9040149 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Crowdsourcing Antiquities Crime Fighting
Yates, D. (2018) · Advances in Archaeological Practice · doi:10.1017/aap.2018.8 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Haney, W. M. (2016) · University of Oklahoma College of Law - Digital Commons (University of Oklahoma) · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Mapping a path towards equity: reflections on a co-creative community praxis
Ehrman-Solberg, K., Keeler, B., Derickson, K. D., & Delegard, K. M. (2020) · GeoJournal · doi:10.1007/s10708-020-10294-1 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
The Outside Inside: Combining Aerial Photographs, Cropmarks and Landscape Experience
Millican, K. (2012) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-012-9140-9 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Parrington, M. (1983) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev.an.12.100183.000541 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Venture Into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA SP-4301
Rosenthal, A. (1968) · Virtual Defense Library (Ministerio de Defensa) · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Morton, F. (2013) · SSRN Electronic Journal · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Wadsworth, W. T. D. (2020) · ERA: Education and Research Archive (University of Alberta) · doi:10.7939/r3-mrdq-bf26 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Reddix-Smalls, B. (2014) · North Carolina Central Law Review · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Le rôle des tabous dans la conservation des ressources côtières à Madagascar
Cinner, J. E. (2008) · Pacific Community (SPC) Oceanic Fisheries Programme (The Pacific Community (SPC)) · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 9
- Amelot X., 2017, Dire l'océan Indien, 32
- Basso K. H., 1996, Senses of place, 53
- Benthem J., 1791, Panopticon or the inspection house
- Haggerty K., 2006, Theorising surveillance: The panopticon and beyond, 23
- Langley J. M., 2006, Vezo knowledge: Traditional ecological knowledge in Andavadoaka, southwest Madagascar
- Parcak S., 2019, Archaeology from space: How the future shapes our past
- Rosenthal A., 1968, Venture into space: Early years of Goddard Space Flight Center, 13
- Safi M., Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings, The Guardian
- Thomas J., 1995, Landscape, politics and perspectives, 19
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Counter-Mapping Maroon Cartographies: GIS and Anticolonial Modeling in St. Croix
Dunnavant, J. P., Wernke, S. A., & Kohut, L. E. (2023) · ACME · doi:10.7202/1107310ar · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Davis, D. S., Buffa, D., Rasolondrainy, T., Creswell, E., Anyanwu, C., Ibirogba, A., Randolph, C., Ouarghidi, A., Phelps, L. N., Lahiniriko, F., Chrisostome, Z. M., Manahira, G., & Douglass, K.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (GB)
- Morombe Archaeological Project Andavadoake Madagascar
- Corresponding author
- Davis, Dylan S.
- Venue
- Archaeological Prospection
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-04-20
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 305-320
- ISSN
- 1075-2196 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0763
- OpenAlex
- W3157158353
- Semantic Scholar
- 522c59c98eb0c255c4106beed46039d4793c369f
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 12.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Archaeological Prospection (publishedVersion)
- ScholarSphere (Penn State Libraries) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Archaeological Research and Protection
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
- Keywords
- airborne remote sensing, satellite remote sensing, archaeological ethics, panopticon, Michel Foucault, power relations, community participation, collaborative archaeology, southwestern Madagascar
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
