The Proximity of Communities to the Expanse of Big Data

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While members of the communities living near or on archaeological sites have frequently been hired around the world to dig on archaeological excavations, they have very rarely participated in the recording or documentation of those excavations. They have played even less of a role in designing the structures of either paper or electronic data management systems. In this paper, I examine the effect of this long-term exclusion using Çatalhöyük, Turkey as a case study. I argue that many of the long-term debates in digital archaeology, particularly considering the comparability versus the customization of data collected, acquire new valances when the interests and knowledge of local community members are taken into account. I maintain that in many ways, the advancements toward big data approaches in archaeology make it more difficult than ever for local communities to articulate their relationships and perspectives on archaeological material. Proximity, defined in many different ways, underlies the way that local communities think and speak about archaeological assemblages, and I illustrate the ways in which these proximities are at odds with the expansive view that "big archaeology" enables.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23408