I’ll Tell You What I Want, What I Really, Really Want! Open Archaeology that Is Collaborative, Participatory, Public, and Feminist

Abstract

In this paper, my aim is to remake a powerful case for an open archaeology that is always collaborative, participatory, and public – but also feminist and activist. Drawing on more than 10 years’ experience as a community archaeologist I discuss some of the reasons why researchers who employ collaborative approaches to the past may be reluctant to publicly acknowledge the frictions which inevitably arise through their work. By unpacking some of the key concepts employed in these approaches, like ‘community’, ‘public’ and ‘collaboration’, I consider how we might define the limits of inclusivity and openness in the name of democracy. Furthermore, I identify some of the strategies and approaches to community archaeology, which I suggest are more likely to lead to beneficial or positive outcomes, proposing that an explicitly feminist lens will achieve the return to politics and provocation for which some scholars have recently called.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge my friend and colleague Dr Whitney Battle-Baptiste with whom I was honoured to share a platform for panel discussion at CHAT 2018, at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark. The conversations that Whitney and I enjoyed during the panel and informally at the conference helped to shape many of the thoughts that are expressed in this paper. Any mistakes in this article are entirely my own.

Notes

1. ‘collaborative, adj.’ OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2019. Web. August 3, 2019.

2. ‘participate, adj. and n.’ OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2019. Web. August 3, 2019.

3. ‘participate, v.’ OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2019. Web. August 3, 2019.

4. Here, I would like to acknowledge a session at the Society of Historical Archaeology’s annual conference in Boston, January 9, 2020. The session was entitled ‘Fast Capitalism/Slow Archaeology’, where many of my fellow contributors drew on examples from their own work which made similar points to the one that I highlight here.

5. Article 27.1a Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to participate in cultural life’. However, Article 29.2 defines the limitations of such engagements. See https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.

6. https://www.unhcr.org/ph/figures-at-a-glance.

7. ‘democratization, n.’ OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2019. Web. July 24, 2019.

8. See https://new.archaeologyuk.org/community-archaeology-bursaries-project.

9. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/projects/heritage-hospitals.

10. https://unearthdetroit.wordpress.com.

11. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/07/donald-trump-leaked-recording-women.

12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-49119947.

13. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/womenshouldertheresponsibilityofunpaidwork/2016-11-10.

14. Even scholars of gender in archaeology found it impossible to support feminism at this time, citing it as just one ‘ … amongst other marginal or minority [voices], one that is relevant only to feminists’ (Sørensen 2000, p. 36).

15. Whitney Battle-Baptiste’s keynote plenary to the Society of Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, on the theme ‘Revolution’, Wednesday January 8, 2020, Boston, MA.

16. https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/nov/04/academics-you-are-going-to-fail-so-learn-how-to-do-it-better.

17. https://theconversation.com/uk.

18. https://www.sapiens.org/columns/.