Public Perceptions of Archaeology and its Impact on Archaeological Resource Preservation: A Case Study from Western Canada

Summary

Although archaeologists acknowledge a legal and ethical responsibility to engage the public, the level of public appreciation and knowledge of archaeology and attitudes toward heritage preservation still remain poorly understood. A handful of past social surveys in North America and Europe give an initial perspective of public opinion on archaeological heritage preservation and its role in contemporary society. Given recent digital advances in public access to information and forums for communication, more research is needed that revisits and extends the scope of these studies to better understand today’s public and the challenges of engaging them. Using a case study from western Canada, this paper analyses individual responses to online news articles on archaeological heritage preservation to monitor public perceptions of the role of archaeological preservation in contemporary society and its economic implications. These results are then compared to the baseline from past surveys to assess current public support of archaeological preservation policies.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Public Perceptions of Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage