Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session looks at the way pseudoarchaeological themes are used in various forms of media; TV, Movies, Books, Magazines, the internet, and Social Media, and how that influences the public's opinions on archaeological topics. After several fifteen minute presentations, we will discuss ways that archaeologists can interact with these media to correct misrepresentations of archaeological topics and how we can challenge these pseudoarchaeological themes successfully.

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  • Documents (5)

Documents
  • Ancient Egyptian Curses and Bog Bodies: The Role of Pseudoarchaeology in Tumblr's Subculture (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emma Verstraete.

    This is an abstract from the "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Current digital tools and social media provide a near constant stream of data. While the trustworthiness of this data may be suspect, communication mediums such as internet memes and Tumblr blog posts saturate common search results....

  • Comics, Colonialism, & Pseudoarchaeology: The Case of "La Crane de Mkwawa" (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katie Biittner.

    This is an abstract from the "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists are frequently represented in comic books as caricatures, where adventure and profit are exaggerated and the interpretation of finds is oversimplified. In this paper it is argued that these misrepresentations of how and...

  • The Danger in Dehumanizing the Dead (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James VanderVeen.

    This is an abstract from the "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The various undead or reanimated humans in world folklore (e.g., zombies, vampires) are examples of using supernatural explanations to account for misunderstood or inconceivable phenomena found in the natural world. Such creatures and...

  • Ethics, Etiquette and Engagement: The Role of Archaeologists in Active Opposition (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dina Rivera.

    This is an abstract from the "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stewardship in archaeology has had it's run around the debate block regarding definitions and scope as to whom and what archaeologists are exactly protecting and promoting out of the archaeological record. Ethical principles of public...

  • No Shit Sherlock: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Use of Archaeological Landscapes (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenneth Feder.

    This is an abstract from the "Interactions with Pseudoarchaeology: Approaches to the Use of Social Media and the Internet for Correcting Misconceptions of Archaeology in Virtual Spaces" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There are a number of fascinating instances in the Sherlock Holmes canon of four novels and fifty-six published short stories in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hints at the presence of malevolent forces embedded in archaeological...