Malleable Minds: The Importance of Flexibility in Developing Research Designs

Summary

In academic and compliance archaeologies alike, a standard first step in the development of project goals is the identification of a research question. This often happens at the time a project is first proposed and the methodological and theoretical perspectives that will guide the study are thus established long before actual research begins. Here we examine the role of research questions in CRM projects through a study at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma. Despite early research design, on the ground realities quickly demonstrated the importance of the former town site of Sulphur Springs, Indian Territory that is found within the park’s boundaries. Flexibility, rather than strict adherence to a predefined research question provided an opportunity to build both research and compliance capacity into a CRM project and transformed a small project into something that served both archaeological and public outreach requirements.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 989