The Politics of Archaeology: Reflections on the Early Decades of the 21st Century

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Households to Empires: Papers Presented in Honor of Bradley J. Parker" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2003, Bradley Parker co-organized a workshop at the University of Utah exploring the politics of archaeology, with emphasis on the Middle East. Both at the workshop and in the resulting edited volume, Controlling the Past, Owning the Future: The Political Uses of Archaeology in the Middle East, contributors considered the actors who were appropriating and managing archaeology with a predominant focus on nation states or nationalistic movements representing emerging new states (e.g., the Palestinian Liberation Organization). Since then, many new, non-state actors have come to the fore and are taking leadership positions that influence the politics of archaeology. Operating in many arenas, such actors are appropriating ownership, management, preservation and investigation of the archaeological record at all scales. In this paper, we will explore the changes these actors are making in three different operational areas: cyberspace, research funding and advocacy. Our goal is to reflect on the work done at the University of Utah workshop and to provide an updated perspective on the intermingling of archaeology and politics of the 21st century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Households to Empires: Papers Presented in Honor of Bradley J. Parker   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23555