Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

After decades of calls for change, archaeologists are addressing the need to change our practice around knowledge production in profound ways. Archaeological practice has benefited from collaborating with diverse stakeholders and descendant communities in producing narratives around heritage. However, this can be difficult to accomplish in compliance-based work, and few archaeologists are trained to do this work. If done well, it can lead to a more democratic production of knowledge around heritage. Democratizing heritage production involves shifting power dynamics in who “rules” over the creation of narratives and investing authority in the “people” or descendant communities. Because of archaeology’s roots in colonialism, democratizing heritage is no easy task. Participants in this session provide examples of how they have employed democratic methodologies to disciplinary practice in all stages of a project and continuing after funding has ended. These case studies offer practical, how-to advice for academic and compliance-based projects.