Changing Attitudes and Perspectives on Public Participation in Archaeology: The Case of the Southwest Archaeology Team

Summary

In the early 1980s the Southwest Archaeology Team was formed under what is now the Arizona Museum of Natural History. Reacting to a need for an emergency response team to preserve information from archaeological sites, not protected by state or federal regulations, but being destroyed by development. While initially considered as outsiders and non-professionals, the acceptance of the public working on archaeological excavations quickly changed. This paper focuses on the changing attitudes and perspectives on public archaeology by both the professional community and avocational archaeologists themselves. After over three decades of work both the strengths and weaknesses of this experiment in public archaeology are examined.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Collaborations and Competition between Professionals and Nonprofessionals in the Production of Archaeological Knowledge in the Americas

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