community archaeology (Other Keyword)
51-75 (98 Records)
It is widely recognized that archaeologists have the potential to contribute in meaningful ways to local communities. However, it is also important to consider the tangible and intangible nature of these contributions given the diverse and, sometimes, competing interests among various stakeholder groups along with the seasonal nature of academic archaeological and heritage research. Multi-year collaborative projects often facilitate greater general awareness of local heritage, open new...
Grounding Futures in Pasts: Eastern Pequot Community Archaeology in Connecticut (2017)
Collaborations between archaeologists and Native communities have expanded significantly in the past 20 years. For most, this is recognized as an important and healthy development on methodological, theoretical, practical, and political grounds, especially when anchored deeply in the communities themselves and designed to address political as well as professional issues. We have worked together in different capacities for more than 13 years on the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School, a...
"I don’t know all of these stories": Method and Intention in Community-Oriented Research and Heritage Projects (2016)
Scholars who conduct engaged and collaborative research and heritage projects often warn against treating participants as homogeneous communities who speak with a unified voice. Gender provides a useful lens to combat this tendency and to create a reflexive, action-oriented archaeology. This paper will discuss the role of gender, intersectionality, and intersubjectivity in method and intention in archaeological practices. Current projects in Georgia, USA and Rajasthan, India will be used to...
Indigenous Experimental Archaeology: A Community-Driven Remembering of Technique (2017)
Archaeologists rely heavily on experimentation to understand the past. Today, we are not the only ones. Indigenous peoples and members of the public are consulting ethnographic and archaeological museum collections, by trial and error investigating techniques of object production. Many of these individuals work with craft specialists, and others are craftspeople themselves. They seek to learn, remember, and reclaim lost or fading skills in an attempt to connect with their pasts. The process...
Intersecting Histories: The Beman Triangle and Wesleyan University (2013)
This paper discusses preliminary archaeological investigation of the Beman Triangle, CT. From the mid- to late-19th century, the Beman Triangle was a community of property owning African Americans, closely allied with one of the first AME Zion Churches in the US. As a community archaeology project, partnering between the AME Zion Church and Wesleyan University, the archaeological investigations of the site have been driven by multiple intersections. Questions from the working group have...
Into the mind of an undergrad: personal experience, training and archaeology (2015)
Only in exceptional moments can we explore the thoughts of others. Community archaeology projects, together with the ethical practice of the discipline, foster communication between the academia and the communities. Being part of one of these projects as a research assistant has given me the opportunity of interacting with people of diverse backgrounds, and of learning about their concerns and interests towards archaeology and their historical and cultural heritage. This experience has taught me...
Learning heritage while teaching archaeology at Tahcabo, Yucatán: archaeologists’ perspectives on the opportunities and risks of local community engagement (2015)
While a great deal of archaeological research in the Maya area has been conducted with the interests of the academic community and tourism industry in mind, there are fewer examples of archaeology conducted with the needs of local "publics" foregrounded. We propose greater dialogue between archaeologists and the people who live near (and within) places where archaeologists conduct research, and consider the dissemination of archaeological information to communities involved in archaeological...
Learning to Listen: Quinhagak Voices Teaching about Gender (2016)
This presentation describes how archaeologists are using the knowledge of community stakeholders from the Yup'ik village of Quinhagak, Alaska to analyze gender dynamics at Nunalleq (GDN-248), a pre-contact village site located on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. During the summer of 2015, Quinhagak residents were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews about gender roles and activities in Yup'ik society and about the relevance of gender to stakeholder questions about the past. Interview...
Legacies of Ethiopian Women: Revealing Heritage through an indigenous animistic ontology (2016)
This paper will focus on the importance of including women’s legacies and narratives in the heritage of southern Ethiopia. In particular, women’s memories reveal the significance of life rituals associated with birth, marriage, and leadership, which served as reminders for illuminating their indigenous ontology Detsa concerning animism, fertility, and prestige. Traces of their life experiences and thoughts are tangible as visible markers on the landscape at Biare Dere, first settlements....
Lessons Learned Along the Way: The Florida Public Archaeology Network after 10 years (2015)
The Florida Public Archaeology Network delivers programming through public outreach, assistance to local governments, and assistance to the Florida Division of Historical Resources. The general goal of FPAN is to achieve preservation gains through raising the awareness of Florida archaeology to the public and governmental officials. Authorized by statute in 2004, the Florida legislature funded FPAN in 2005. The program is administered by the University of West Florida but operates in a...
Local Archaeology Societies in the UK (2017)
Local archaeology societies in the UK are unique. They are a product of the British political and legal system combined with cultural attitudes to the past and the development of the archaeological profession. They are a melting pot of inexperienced beginners, expert volunteers, professional archaeologists and everybody in between. As a unique form of public and community archaeology, they allow volunteers to have a significant positive impact for and on both archaeology and society. This...
Looking Back to Move Forward: Urban Renewal, Salvage Archaeology, and Historical Reckoning in Alexandria, Virginia (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Urban Dissonance: Violence, Friction, and Change" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Dissent over what merits preservation and what constitutes progress undergird Alexandria Archaeology’s establishment. Our program is rooted in the urban renewal movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In demolishing several blocks and removing people of color and poor whites from the City’s downtown, officials hoped to...
Luna by Land and Sea: Public Outreach at America’s First European Settlement (2017)
The people of Pensacola have long been proud of their connection with the 1559 Tristán de Luna expedition and to the earliest European multi-year settlement of the United States. The recent discovery of Luna’s colony site on land, together with the ongoing excavation of ships associated with his wrecked fleet, has stimulated renewed public interest and excitement in the community’s heritage. Archaeologists with the University of West Florida and its(?)theFlorida Public Archaeology Network work...
Making History Relevant and Sustainable: Listening to Descendant Communities through Collaboration and Partnership (2015)
Project Archaeology is a heritage education organization devoted to curriculum development that gives students the tools to better understand the cultural landscape of the world they live in. One of our main goals is to collaborate and partner with descendant communities in all that we do to research, develop, and implement our programs. In this paper we will outline our collaborative theory and practice, and our goals to encourage multiple ways of knowing, validate tribal history, and support...
Mapping Historical Sacred Spaces in Southern Ethiopia (2018)
In 2011, we began a collaborative project with Boreda Gamo communities of southern Ethiopia to understand the spatial and historical relationships between settlements and sacred areas. Community elders guided us along winding footpaths that ascended 9 mountain tops leading to settlements that were first occupied in the early 13th century and have now been abandoned for nearly 100 years. Surrounding these historic settlements are sacred groves with springs, caves, and boulders that give physical...
Maritime Stewards of the Bahamas: The Highbourne Cay Experiment (2018)
The Converging Worlds project was so named for many reasons, including the initial goal of incorporating the diverse public, both visiting and local to Highbourne Cay, into the core functioning of the cultural preservation project. For decades, the Bahamas has seen its cultural heritage exported by outsiders for personal interest removing any possibility for community involvement and public archaeology. The authors worked to change this trend through outreach, public education, and cultural...
The Mill Swamp/Ralph J. Bunche Community Center Restoration Project (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In July 2017, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) partnered with the Mill Swamp community, both located in Edgewater, Maryland, in an effort to restore and preserve the history of their historic Rosenwald type school. Since 1970, after integration, this building had served the Mill Swamp commnity as...
"A Monumental Blunder": The Challenging History and Uncertain Future of the Virginia State Penitentiary Collection (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Urban Erasures and Contested Memorial Assemblages" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Virginia State Penitentiary (1804-1991) loomed over the Falls of the James River and was a feared site of solitary confinement, carceral labor, and capital punishment. Designed by Benjamin Latrobe, the penitentiary was notorious for its inhumane treatment and poor management in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Fieldwork in...
Mother Baltimore’s Freedom Village and the Reconstitution of Memory (2013)
The inconspicuous Mississippi River town of Brooklyn, Illinois was the first black town in the USA. Located just north of East St. Louis, Brooklyn was founded around 1829 as a freedom settlement by several enterprising African-American families that emigrated from Missouri. The most remarkable settler was a former slave named "Mother" Priscilla Baltimore, who was a major figure in the AME movement. Today, despite serious economic hardships, Brooklynites display tenacity, resilience, and a strong...
One House, Many Homes: Examining the Upton Mansion of West Baltimore (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The 1838 Greek Revival-styled Upton Mansion currently stands vacant like many other houses in West Baltimore. Like the neighborhood, the uses of the building have evolved over time, serving originally as a country estate on the edge of Baltimore to more recently a city school building. The property was also used as an early radio...
Picturing a Storied Past: On Narrative and Photography at a Castroville, TX Archaeological Site (2017)
Often associated with the documentary record and prized for their historical relevance, photographs can be an invaluable instrument found within any historical archaeologist's toolkit. They help to illuminate and corroborate the material cultural remains we find within the archaeological record as they present to us their dramas through images frozen in time. It is in this phenomenon of storytelling that this paper puts much of its focus as it explores the use of historical photographs as an...
Project SAMPHIRE: Community Maritime Archaeology in Scotland. (2015)
The Scottish Atlantic Maritime Past: Heritage, Investigation, Research and Education (SAMPHIRE) Project is a collaborative effort between professional archaeologists and local communities in western Scotland to identify and document maritime archaeological resources. This paper presents the results of the first two years of the ongoing project and outlines plans for the final year and evaluates the effectiveness and potential legacy of the project.
Protecting cultural heritage by promoting community welfare in the Syrian conflict (2016)
The recent conflict in Syria and Iraq has upended all aspects of aspects of daily life. There are now over 250,000 dead, and millions have been displaced. Famous heritage sites embedded within the region’s cultural landscape have been damaged or destroyed. In the face of such human tragedy, what can archaeologists do? This paper discusses the efforts of the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq (SHOSI) Project, which are aimed at both alleviating human suffering and protecting heritage...
Redefining Community Archaeology: Shared Experiences and A Collaborative Approach to the Site Stabilization Efforts Following the Oso Landslide (2016)
A diverse team of spotters and archaeologists were assembled to assist Snohomish County with the site stabilization efforts following the massive landslide that occured March 2014 in Oso, Washington. This three month project focused on the recovery of human remains and personal items from the 300,000 cubic yards of search and rescue piles that were created during search and recovery immediately following the slide. The community was intimately involved in every aspect of the project and their...
A Reflexive Paradigm: Improving Understanding of our Shared Human Heritage (2018)
BOEM’s historic preservation program is based in stewardship, science-informed decisions, and scientific integrity. To achieve these values, we utilize best practices of inclusiveness in our community science programs. By actively seeking varied ways of knowing, e.g, traditional knowledge and landscape approaches, we allow for concurrent historic contexts to be defined and understood at various scales. Considering our jurisdiction covers 1.76 billion acres of submerged federal lands, these...