Valley of No Masters: Exchanging Experiences at the Valley of the Masters, Northeastern Brazil

Summary

Field schools, and Methods and techniques in Archaeology classes are mandatory steps to achieve Master’s or a PhD degree in most graduate programs in Brazil. We, as instructors noticed a certain mismatch in students’ behavior in regard to decision-making in both situations: reticence during field activities, boldness during class discussions and debates. This dichotomy seemed to be related to field experiences in which the students had fewer opportunities to engage with other "more experienced-professional" archaeologists to make decisions. Inspired by calls for a more inclusive fieldwork experience we developed a proposal (tested in 2016 and 2017) in which students were collectively in charge of all decisions. We then encouraged debates and deliberations before any final determinations, and took the occasions to present distinct alternatives of action. The experience of continuous justification of decision making, of taking such decisions in a context with no hierarchy, and later the critical evaluation of the results obtained, turned out a considerable challenge for the students. In this paper we present the results – both archaeological and educational - of this innovative approach, and ideas we intend to implement in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20090