Learning heritage while teaching archaeology at Tahcabo, Yucatán: archaeologists’ perspectives on the opportunities and risks of local community engagement (original) (raw)
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Heritage, 2020
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Practicing Anthropology, 2023
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Engaged archaeology, like other forms of research, is replete with contradictions. Over the last several years, members of the Punta Laguna Archaeology Project-a community-based endeavor in Yucatan, Mexico-have encountered and sought to address several paradoxical questions. Do attempts to mitigate certain forms of inequality unintentionally sustain other forms of inequality? Can the production of capital alleviate rather than exacerbate unequal social relationships? And, can Western social theories be marshalled to advocate for and increase Maya and other Indigenous perspectives in archaeology? This article examines these contradictory questions and analyzes them as potential sources of dialectical change. To conclude, the article suggests three new foci for engaged archaeology: intersectionality, control, and authoritative speech.
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Archaeology students face many hurdles during the completion of thesis or dissertation projects. Acquiring funding, collecting and analyzing data, conducting fieldwork, and presenting results are just some of the obstacles archaeology students must overcome. Because of the time, energy, and monetary requirements needed to complete these tasks, public engagement often is at the bottom of an archaeology student’s task list. However, it is becoming increasingly important for academics and archaeologists to communicate with a diversity of audiences. Thus, I suggest that it is essential that archaeology students engage the public during the course of their degree, in order to begin learning how to succinctly disseminate their research through a variety of forums. In this poster, I provide examples of public archaeology from my dissertation research at Woodrow Ruin, a large, multi-component site in the Mimbres region of southwest New Mexico. My project at Woodrow Ruin demonstrates that public engagement is indeed possible as an archaeology student, and should be an integral part of student research projects. By working with the public, students learn not only the best methods and practices for public discourse, but may also gain unexpected assistance with some of the many tasks associated with completing an archaeology degree.