From Critical to Substantive Heritage Practice

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Conceptual and Ethical Limits of Heritage in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the past two decades, the Critical Heritage Studies Movement (CHSM) has spurred a sea change in archaeological, anthropological, and historical approaches to the study of heritage. CHSM scholars interrogated the underlying assumptions of the growing heritage industry, including how places and objects designated as heritage were then conferred an unearned status as innately valuable. These interventions have been vital. In this essay I argue, however, that the CHSM has trapped itself in a proliferation of studies steeped in descriptive criticism but lacking in avenues for substantive action. I find Ann Stahl’s recent call for archaeologists to shift their focus to making the discipline more effective rather than more relevant motivating. I am also enthused by recent US-based legal movements seeking substantive rather than formal equality in American law. Thus, I will draw on a series of examples pulling from my own research in southeastern Mexico as well as other research from throughout the Americas to outline mechanisms for taking what we have learned from CHSM and applying it to an effective—substantive—archaeological heritage practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Conceptual and Ethical Limits of Heritage in Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33209