Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The last decades have moved the concept of “heritage” to the forefront of cultural resources management, historic preservation legislation, the tourism industry, academic institutions, and nonprofits. Since the official definition by UNESCO in 1972, heritage discussions have become increasingly fluid and contested. In the Americas, archaeologists engage with descendant communities over questions of ownership and rights to certain places and excavated materials. The core challenge in these conflicts is that in Indigenous knowledge systems, sense of place, boundaries, law, and history do not align with the Western system. Social memory may lay claim to places and cultural objects contradicting Western constructions of borders and histories. The concept of heritage raises related questions when we look at countries in Europe and the Middle East, where modern people live in and around archaeological sites and have strong feelings about place and history. This panel asks how can heritage discourse be made meaningful and productive in the social sciences in the twenty-first century? How could heritage objectives empower archaeology and grow knowledge by decolonizing? And how can fruitful and trusting partnerships form between archaeologists and Indigenous people? Archaeology-based case studies from different parts of the world are welcome.

Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management • Historic • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Indigenous • Historical Archaeology • History Of Archaeology • Cultural Resource Management • Pueblo • Ethnohistory/History • Andes: Late Horizon

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United Mexican States (Country) • Belize (Country) • South America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • Republic of Guatemala (Country) • Republic of Peru (Country) • Republic of Panama (Country) • Republic of Colombia (Country) • Netherlands Antilles (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • A 10-Year Evaluation of El Guarco Project and Its Impacts in the Local Interactions at Cerro Azul, Peru (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Giancarlo Marcone. Bryan Nuñez. Nina Castillo.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the year 2014 as part of the Qhapaq Ñan project, a long-term intervention at the site of El Guarco in the coastal town of Cerro Azul was started. The project was thought from the beginning within the framework of collaborative archaeology and the relation with local...

  • Disputes over Ancestors: Between Atacameño Discourse and Authorized Heritage (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Ayala.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of the Atacama Desert have coexisted with collecting, heritage, and museum practices. Since the late twentieth century, Atacama communities have confronted archaeology and museums over the significance, ownership, and rights over...

  • Heritage and Territoriality: Past, Present, and Future Perceptions among the Tacana, Tsimane, and Mosetén in Bolivia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carla Jaimes Betancourt. Patricia Ayala.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary results of the collaborative methodologies applied in two years of intense fieldwork in the Bolivian Amazon will be presented, and we will reflect on the different roles played by archaeological and sacred sites in the Tsimane, Mosetén, and Tacana indigenous...

  • Heritage Management at the Cherokee Town of Noquisiyi (Nikwasi) in Franklin, North Carolina, USA (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Steere.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Noquisiyi or Nikwasi Mound, a monumental earthen platform mound located in the town of Franklin, North Carolina, was first constructed during the Mississippian period (AD 1000–1600) and marks the location of an important Cherokee mother town. In this paper I consider the...

  • Indigenizing Heritage: A Perspective from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Preucel. Kai-t Blue Sky.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cultural heritage is commonly associated with the preservation of the physical traces of past human existence which are held to be our collective inheritance and to inspire our common future. It is often contrasted with natural heritage defined as natural places distinguished...

  • Laws that Continue Depriving Indigenous Peoples of Their Cultural Heritage in Guatemala: Lesson for Archaeologists (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Iyaxel Cojti-Ren.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Guatemala, the Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation establishes that archaeological sites are the property of the nation and are under the exclusive protection of the state. From the point of view of Indigenous Peoples, this law is racist,...

  • The Negative/Contested/Dark Heritage of Disability Institutions (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Heath-Stout.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When I told a leading Massachusetts disability activist that I was starting an archaeological heritage research project on the state institutions for people with intellectual disabilities, he flinched. “But those are sites of trauma and oppression, nothing empowering like...

  • Reframing Heritage: Indigenous Views in the Forefront (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Leventhal.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In many parts of the world, it is assumed that the most important heritage are the ancient sites that are visible on the landscape. This is certainly true within the Maya region of Central America. Projects often start out with the assumption that contemporary Maya...

  • Revenge of the Nerds, or Why Do Modern Archaeologists Identify with Early Antiquarians? (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Fernando Armstrong-Fumero.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Laws for the preservation of tangible heritage posit historical and cultural significance as a form of intrinsic value that makes objects worth preserving. In the nineteenth century, arguments for this sort of preservation were meant to counteract vernacular practices that...

  • Vive la différence? Comparing American and French Approaches to Heritage (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Sterling.

    This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What do archaeologists mean when we talk about heritage? That depends in large part on our often-shifting positionality within broader heritage discourses. Western archaeologists often investigate what we might describe as our own heritage as well as that of others, both...