Why Is There No American Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Heritage Protection: Accomplishing Goals" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The question posed in the paper title will be addressed by presenting arguments for the development and adoption of an American Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage similar to the existing European convention on heritage protection. Using the European convention as a model, important components of an American convention will be considered, recognizing the unique heritage protection issues faced in the Americas, particularly the multi-cultural heritage of the western hemisphere. It will be argued that an important component of the convention should be positive actions to increase government, corporate and public support for protection of heritage resources by strengthening the concept of "ownership" of these resources by these groups beyond the acknowledged interests of concerned resource professionals including archaeologists, cultural resource managers and museum specialists. Recent considerations of this issue by European heritage professions will be reviewed to support the essential need for this non-professional involvement in heritage protection. Finally, this paper will recommend a potential strategy for developing a draft American Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage and moving it toward adoption by governmental entities of the Americas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Perspectives on Heritage Protection: Accomplishing Goals

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23389