What Happens When Objects Become Artifacts?

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.

The term “artifactual surface” refers to a particular confluence of law and materiality. Protections that are afforded to objects of tangible cultural heritage assume that these objects should indefinitely retain the same physical form that they possessed at the time that that came under official protection. This assumption not only defies the effects of time and use-wear, it also contradicts the assumption that “culture” is rooted in and reproduced by quotidian practice. In this paper, I examine a range of political effects of this often unquestioned assumption of heritage practice. I will draw on ethnographic examples of tensions between archaeologists and stakeholder communities, the writing of early and influential figures in anthropology, and works of popular culture as well as close reading of current legal frameworks. The goal is to explore alternative approaches of tangible heritage that offer more opportunities for collaboration between scholars and nonacademic stakeholders in the stewardship of objects.

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): 33206