Digging for Community Engagement

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Community engagement in anthropology and archaeology is extremely important in this day and age, just as it has been in the past; through community engagement, we have the ability to pass along the importance of conserving and preserving our shared (?) archaeological heritage as well as pointing out the importance of every human being's ethnicity, culture, and heritage. It is imperative that this discipline strives to reach out to youth in an effort to diversify, grow, and ultimately improve an already awe-inspiring, adventurous field of study. Through my mobile youth outreach program "Archaeology, Can You Dig It?," I am able to reach thousands of aspiring young archaeologists through engaging, educational, inspiring, authentic, hands-on anthropology/archaeology programs. These activities provide an understanding of what it entails to be an anthropologist/archaeologist and, optimistically, will steer some young participants into this career path. My program also offers an opportunity to engage the adult public in efforts to provide them with a better understanding of what we actually do in the field and lab. I think that archaeology and community engagement complement each other and the field widely benefits when the two collide.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Collaborative and Community Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33418