Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T17:24:13.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The need and potential for an archaeology orientated towards the present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2013

Cornelius Holtorf
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question ‘Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual?’ appears to express both an unfulfilled desire and a secret hope of an entire professional corps to count among them at least a few public intellectuals. I suggest that the state of the discipline of archaeology makes it harder, compared with other disciplines, for its professional representatives to address present-day issues and relate to public debates. I also suggest that maybe the most significant effect of the fact that society's public intellectuals generally do not have degrees in archaeology is that participants in public debates and policy makers are unaware of how various applications of archaeology and cultural heritage can benefit contemporary society. This potential will therefore have to be realized in different ways.

Keywords

Public archaeologyarchaeology in societynew heritageapplied archaeology
Type
Discussion
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , June 2013 , pp. 12 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersson, C., Lagerlöf, A. and Skyllberg, E., 2010: Assessing and measuring. On quality in development-led archaeology (with comments and reply), Current Swedish archaeology 18, 11–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Araoz, G.F., 2011: Preserving heritage places under a new paradigm, Journal of cultural heritage management and sustainable development 1 (1), 55–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J.C., 1994: Fragments from antiquity. An archaeology of social life in Britain, 2900 –1200 BC, Oxford.Google Scholar
Benford, G., 1999: Deep time. How humanity communicates across millennia, New York.Google Scholar
Burström, M., 2007: Samtidsarkeologi. Introduktion till ett forskningsfält, Lund.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C.et al., 1990: Who owns Stonehenge?, London.Google Scholar
Council of Europe, 2005: Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (The Faro Convention), European Treaty Series 199, Strasbourg, available at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/199.htm, accessed 6 April 2012.Google Scholar
Dawdy, S.L., 2009: Millennial archaeology. Locating the discipline in the age of insecurity (with comments and reply), Archaeological dialogues 16 (2), 129–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downum, C.E., and Price, L.J., 1999: Applied archaeology, Human organization 58 (3), 226–39, available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3800/is_199910/ai_n8873499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, C., 1992: Applied archaeology and rural development. Archaeology's potential contribution to the future, Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 20 (1–2), 1–16.Google Scholar
Fairclough, G., 2009: New Heritage Frontiers, in Council of Europe (ed.), Heritage and beyond, 29–41. Strasbourg, available at www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/heritage/identities/PatrimoineBD_en.pdf, accessed 6 October 2012.Google Scholar
Fojut, N., 2009: The philosophy, political and pragmatic roots of the convention, in Council of Europe (ed.), Heritage and beyond, Strasbourg, 13–22, available at www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/heritage/identities/PatrimoineBD_en.pdf, accessed 6 October 2012.Google Scholar
Goudswaard, B., Bos, J., van Roode, S. and Pape, H., 2012: Forward with reverse archaeology. On a new method for utilizing the past in spatial planning, Heritage and Society 5 (1), 101–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, R.A., 2007: Disaster archaeology, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Gould, R.A., and Schiffer, M.B. (eds), 1981: Modern material culture. The archaeology of us, New York.Google Scholar
Högberg, A., 2007: The past is the present. Prehistory and preservation from a children's point of view, Public archaeology 6 (1), 28–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, C., 2007: Archaeology is a brand! The meaning of archaeology in contemporary popular culture, illustrated by Quentin Drew, Oxford.Google Scholar
Holtorf, C., 2010: Meta-stories of archaeology, World archaeology 42 (3), 381–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtorf, C., 2012: Search the past, find the present. Qualities of archaeology and heritage in contemporary society, Oxford.Google Scholar
Holtorf, C., and Fairclough, G., 2013: The new heritage and re-shapings of the past, in González-Ruibal, A. (ed.), Reclaiming archaeology, London and New York, 197–210.Google Scholar
Layton, R. (ed.), 1994: Who needs the past? Indigenous values and archaeology, London and New York.Google Scholar
Leone, M.P., 2005: The archaeology of liberty in an American capital. Excavations in Annapolis, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Loulanski, T., 2006: Revising the concept for cultural heritage. The argument for a functional approach, International journal of cultural property 13, 207–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakamura, C., 2012: Archaeology and the capacity to aspire, Forum kritische Archäologie 1, 123–33, available at www.kritischearchaeologie.de/repositorium/fka/2012_1_17_Nakamura.pdf, accessed 6 October 2012.Google Scholar
Powell, E.A., 2008: Insider. Do civilizations really collapse? Archaeology magazine 61 (2), available at www.archaeology.org/0803/abstracts/insider.html, accessed 6 October 2012.Google Scholar
Rathje, W.L., and Murphy, C. 1992: Rubbish! The archaeology of garbage, New York.Google Scholar
Rogers, J.D., 2004: The global environmental crisis. An archaeological agenda for the 21st century, in Redman, C.et al. (eds), The archaeology and global change, Washington, 271–77.Google Scholar
Ronayne, M., 2007: The culture of caring and its destruction in the Middle East. Women's work, water, war and archaeology, in Hamilakis, Y. and Duke, P. (eds), Archaeology and capitalism. From ethics to politics, Walnut Creek, CA, 247–65.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J., 2008: Archaeology matters. Action archaeology in the modern world, Walnut Creek, CA.Google Scholar
Samuels, K.L., 2009. Trajectories of development. International heritage management of archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, Archaeologies. Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 5 (1), 68–91.Google Scholar
Smith, B., 2006: Rock art tourism in southern Africa. Problems, possibilities, and poverty relief, in Agnew, N. and Bridgland, J. (eds), Of the past, for the future. Integrating archaeology and conservation, Los Angeles, 322–30.Google Scholar
Smith, G.S., Messenger, P.M. and Soderland, H.A. (eds), 2010: Heritage values in contemporary society, Walnut Creek, CA.Google Scholar
Spennemann, D.H.R., 2007: The futurist stance of historical societies. An analysis of position statements, International journal of arts management 9 (2), 4–15.Google Scholar
Svanberg, F., and Wahlgren, K.H. 2007: Publik arkeologi, Lund.Google Scholar
Synnestvedt, A., 2008: Fornlämningsplatsen. Kärleksaffär eller trist historia, Gothenburg.Google Scholar
Wilk, R., 1985: The ancient Maya and the political present, Journal of anthropological research 41 (3), 307–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar