Ethnography in the Unit: Archaeology As Elicitation

Summary

Ethnographic approaches to archaeology have explored the way in which archaeological projects are themselves a fruitful site of study (Castenada and Matthews 2008; Hamilakis and Anagnostopoulos 2009). This paper will build on these approaches to explore how Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) archaeological projects open up a rich space for ethnographic inquiry. The paper develops a methodology that uses archaeology both as a craft and metaphor (Gonzalez-Ruibal 2013) in order to elicit the collective memory of volunteers partaking in excavations. Specifically, ethnography in the unit explores how volunteers come to understand themselves and their own positionality through the archaeological process. Using data collected from the Dr. James Still Community Archaeology Project, the methodology detailed in this paper will demonstrate how keeping an ethnographic ear to the ground during the excavation process, uncovers how volunteers engage with notions such as discovery, modernity, and "the past" more broadly. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Memory in Community-Based Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 601