Community archaeology
[7] Indeed, "American Indians tend to equate archaeologists with pothunters, grave looters, or, even worse, animals who feast off of the dead (i.e., the 'Vulture Culture').
archaeology benefits American Indians and First People of Canada, respectively, by contributing important historical information; assisting in land claims; managing cultural resources and burial for protection from current and future impacts; promoting sovereignty; offering employment opportunities through field work, interpretive centers, and tourism; educating the young; aiding in nation (re-)building and self-discovery; demonstrating innovative responses of past groups to changing environmental and social circumstance; and providing populations themselves with skills and experience in doing archaeology.
[13] Blume has contended that when collaborating with indigenous peoples, projects should design "forms of public outreach specifically for" those audiences.
[15] Two particularly well known examples of indigenous collaboration are Janet Spector's book What does this Awl Mean and the Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site.
[18] A goal of some of these projects has been to recover and publicly present forgotten aspects of the race relations in local communities—such as histories of slavery and segregation.
[19] As a form of public outreach and collaboration, many archaeology projects in the United States have taken steps to present their work in schools and to children.
These projects vary from a "one time" presentation to local schools, to long-term commitments in which public education is an intricate part of the research design.
As a subject, archaeology in the United Kingdom has been increasingly brought into the public eye in recent years.
The most common form of community archaeology in the United Kingdom has come from the grass roots level.
Increasingly, over the last two decades, public participation has been pushed aside by developer-led, commercial archaeology, with the bulk of work going to contracting units.
[27] The Valletta Convention affects the work of non-official or amateur groups who have been, or are, investigating their local historic environment.
The European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) was signed in Valletta in 1992, and ratified by the UK government before coming into force on 21 March 2001.
[28] Article 3 of the document caused considerable debate as it stated that all archaeological work should be carried out by suitably qualified, authorized people.
[34] Hundreds, if not thousands, of community archaeology projects have occurred throughout the world—including in Brazil,[35] Canada,[36] Egypt,[37] Mexico,[38] the People's Republic of Bangladesh,[39] South Africa,[40] Thailand (Praicharnjit 2006, www.archaeopen.com) and Turkey.
For example, some programs have begun attempting to bring Indigenous leaders together globally to discuss shared methods for decolonization through archaeological collaboration.
[51] Publishing with open access licenses to enable anyone to read archaeological literature without financial barriers is another aspect of decolonization.
[58] On another level, public participation can mean local people taking part in training excavations, and this type of involvement results in a hands-on learning experience in archaeological techniques.
[30] Community participation is not relegated to the interpretation of discoveries but includes contributions to any aspect of archaeology—such as theory[60] and project goals.
[64] Ethnographers and development specialists have shown[65] that a long-term relationship is necessary to develop a rapport and mutual respect with the local community, and argue that to succeed at collaboration archaeologists must make a long-term commitment[66] in order to understand the dynamics of the social context of their research.
[67] For example, collaborations and repatriations have been more successful where archaeologists and American Indians have met on a regular basis and developed both friendship and mutual respect.
This includes books, pamphlets, children's stories,[75] school-oriented workbooks,[76] comic books,[77] websites,[78] public lectures, radio programs, television shows and news coverage, dramatic reenactments, artistic and literary creations, open access publications,[79] and other forms.
For example, archaeologists in the United States must contact the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) before attempting collaboration with federally recognized tribes.
The top-down approach creates a one-sided exchange of information from the archaeologists to the community and precludes real collaboration.
[86] Also, some definitions of the word ‘collaboration’ make allusions to opposed and/or warring parties cooperating with one another during tense or bellicose times.
