Archaeology as Activism: Cultural Heritage, Identity, and Sustainability in Transylvanian Mining Communities

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Activism through ethical community engagement is now a requirement, rather than an elective, of all scholars. Archaeologists have a responsibility to mobilize our understanding of the past, especially to achieve mutual goals we have with modern community partners with whom we work. As an example, we present a case study that focuses on the cultural heritage of mining communities in southwest Transylvania (Romania). These mining communities are currently in a showdown with a transnational mining company that seeks to strip mine and use cyanide to extract gold from this region, which is home to the largest gold deposits in Europe. The mining project threatens the environment, cultural heritage, and challenges how people create communal identities. Prehistoric mining, prior to the emergence of institutionalized inequality and world systems that marginalized mining communities, may hold a key to understanding how an alternative, more sustainable approach to mining might be organized. We argue that it is necessary for policy makers to consider insights from archaeological research when developing new public policy on sustainable mining.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23456