Science, Circumstance, Dollars and Cents: Perspectives on the Public Benefit of Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology as a Public Good: Why Studying Archaeology Creates Good Careers and Good Citizens" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Opening with an introduction to a fictional (as of this writing) federal agency seeking to mine the public value of our nation’s archaeological legacy, this presentation pivots to a consideration of the origins of precontact versus historical archaeology and our subfield’s interactions with the public. I then present three contexts for the public benefit of archaeology; 1) fostering identity and authority for disenfranchised communities, 2) serving as a vehicle and platform for STEM education, and 3) serving as mode for job training and societal reintegration. I suggest that an activist approach using archaeology as a mechanism for public benefit can enhance our public value and expand on the ways in which archaeology is in the public interest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeology as a Public Good: Why Studying Archaeology Creates Good Careers and Good Citizens

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22795