Why Archaeologists Misrepresent Their Practice
A North American Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i2.28206Keywords:
archaeology, democracy, rationalization, violence, silenceAbstract
The statement “we are all archaeologists now” is an assertion of archaeology’s democratization thus goodness. It is also a gross misrepresentation of how archaeology is practiced daily, especially in colonized settings like the United States and Canada. Archaeology is today—as it has always been—an elite undertaking that serves elite class interests. Since 1950, archaeology has become increasingly bureaucratized and corporatized, and today the vast majority of archaeology is state-sanctioned but highly privatized cultural resource management. As a technology of government designed to control living Indigenous people and their resources, we suggest archaeology is becoming radically less democratic, not more, and ask why archaeologists so routinely misrepresent their profession.
References
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Arnold, B. 2014. “Erasure of the Past.” In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by C. Smith, 519–520. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1099
Atalay, S., L. R, Clauss, R. H. McGuire and J. R. Welch. 2014. “Transforming Archaeology.” In Transforming Archaeology: Activist Practices and Prospects, edited by S. Atalay, L. R. Clauss, R. H. McGuire and J. R Welch, 7–28. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Battiste, M. 2005. “You Can’t Be the Global Doctor if You’re the Colonial Disease.” In Teaching as Activism: Equity meets Environmentalism, edited by P. Tripp and L. Muzzin, 120–133. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press.
Battiste, M. and J. Y. Henderson. 2000. Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge. Saskatoon: Purich.
Bodley, J. H. 2008. Victims of Progress (5th edition). Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
Chomsky, N. 1992. “On Propaganda.” Transcript of audio interview with WBAI Radio. Online: http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/199201--.htm
Foster, J. B., B. Clark and R. York. 2010. The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Fowler, D. D. 1987. “Uses of the Past: Archaeology in the Service of the State.” American Antiquity 52(2): 229–248. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/281778
Fromm, E. 2000 [1930]. “The State as Educator: On the Psychology of Criminal Justice.” In Erich Fromm and Critical Criminology, edited by K. Anderson and R. Quinney, 123–128. Trans. H. D. Osterle and K. Anderson. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Greene, K. and T. Moore. 2010. Archaeology: An Introduction (5th edition). New York: Routledge.
Harrison, R. 2010. “Introduction.” In Understanding the Politics of Heritage, edited by R. Harrison, 1–4. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Hutchings, R. 2014. What the Maritime Heritage Crisis Says About Archaeology, Cultural Resource Management, and Global Ecological Crisis. PhD diss., Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Hutchings, R. and M. LaSalle. 2014. “Teaching Anti-Colonial Archaeology.” Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 10(1): 27–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11759-014-9250-y
_____. 2015. “Archaeology as Disaster Capitalism.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19(4): 699–720. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10761-015-0308-3
Kahan, D. M., H. Jenkins-Smith and D. Braman. 2011. “Cultural Cognition of Scientific Consensus.” Journal of Risk Research 14(2): 147–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2010.511246
King, T. F. 2009. Whitewashing the Destruction of Our Natural and Cultural Heritage. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Kintz, T. 2012 [1998]. “Radical Archaeology as Dissent.” Anarchist Library 21 May. Online: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/theresa-kintz-radical-archaeology-as-dissent
La Salle, M. 2013. “‘Capital-C’ Consultation: Community, Capitalism and Colonialism.” New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry 6(1–2): 72–88.
_____. 2014. “The Trouble with ‘Co- ’” Institute for Critical Heritage Studies Bulletin 2014-2: 1–11.
La Salle, M. and R. Hutchings 2012. “Commercial Archaeology in British Columbia.” The Midden 44 (2): 8–16.
_____. 2015. Review of Transforming Archaeology: Activist Practices and Prospects, edited by S. Atalay L. R, Clauss, R. H. McGuire and J. R. Welch. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 39 (2) [In press].
Mapes, L. V. 2009. Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Meskell, L. and P. Pels. 2005. “Introduction: Embedding Ethics.” In Embedding Ethics, edited by L. Meskell and P. Pels, 1–26. Oxford: Berg.
Nicholas, G. and J. Hollowell. 2007. “Ethical Challenges to a Postcolonial Archaeology: The Legacy of Scientific Colonialism.” In Archaeology and Capitalism: From Ethics to Politics, edited by Y. Hamilakis and P. Duke, 59–82. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Orwell, G. 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Signet Classics.
Ritzer, G. 2008. The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Modern Life. London: Pine Forge Press.
Smith, A. 2008. “Landscapes of Clearance: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives.” In Landscapes of Clearance, edited by A. Smith and A. Gazin-Schwartz, 13–24. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Smith, L. 2001. “Archaeology and the Governance of Material Culture: A Case Study from South-Eastern Australia.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 34(2): 97–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00293650127470
_____. 2004. Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heritage. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203307991
_____. and E. Waterton. 2009. “Introduction: Heritage and Archaeology.” In Taking Archaeology Out of Heritage, edited by E. Waterton and L. Smith, 1–9. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Stapp, D. and J. Longenecker. 2009. Avoiding Archaeological Disasters: A Risk Management Approach. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
United Nations. 2008. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. New York: United Nations General Assembly. Online: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf
West, R. G. 1995. Saving and Naming the Garbage: Charles E. Borden and the Making of B.C. Prehistory. MA diss., Department of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
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Published
2016-01-12
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Section
Extended Forum
How to Cite
Hutchings, R. M., & La Salle, M. (2016). Why Archaeologists Misrepresent Their Practice: A North American Perspective. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2(2), S11-S17. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i2.28206
