A Sustainable Archaeology

Archaeology is at an exciting juncture. As those in the field explore new directions, facets of archaeological research simultaneously evoke tensions, raise ethical dilemmas, and open possibilities. One such area is how archaeologists have engaged with Indigenous, descendant, and local communities. The past two decades have brought important changes to the ways archaeologists see these communities and are shifting their relations with them.

Another area of change is how archaeologists engage the public at large. Public involvement, heritage management, and collaboration with communities are now major concerns, and archaeologists are responding to the public with serious scholarly attention. The public shows a growing interest in archaeology. Beyond reading aboutarchaeology,peoplearevisitingarchaeologicalsitesandparticipatingincultural heritage tourism in higher numbers (Gazin-Schwartz 2004; Holtorf 2007). One recent study (Mandala 2009) found that 78 percent of all U.S. leisure travelers (118.3 million adults each year) now participate in cultural and/or heritage activities.

As archaeology matures as a discipline, archaeologists (and those outside the field) have begun to reflect critically on its current and future directions. The movement toward community engagement and heritage management combined with archaeology's involvement with heritage tourism demand that archaeologists develop new skills, methodologies, and practices. The next generation of archaeologists will be quite different from those of past decades, and as a result, archaeology students must master new types of skills and training.

Pondering the goals and potentials of social science research in the decades to come, Paulo Freire (Couto 1995, 25) argued for the need to "problematize the future." He stated that, "The future depends on what we change or what we preserve." Freire, a Brazilian sociologist, is widely known for developing collaborative research partnerships with community members in his home country. His work focused on solving community-identified problems, most notably, adult illiteracy. His concept is profound: strengthen human agency over the possible futures that people and communities can create (Couto 1995). To meet the needs of the next generation, archaeologists need to actively, intentionally "problematize the future." What does that mean? Among other things, it means thinking hard about involving communities. And it means engaging with archaeological places and landscapes in ways that have long-term sustainability.

If we problematize archaeology's future, three important considerations come to the forefront: the issue of relevance, the question of audience, and concerns about benefits. Archaeological research is not a necessity to most nonarchaeologists; it is a luxury. Moreover, this luxury has real-world economic, social, and political impacts on people's daily lives. These consequences continue long after excavations end. In decades past, archaeologists often did not think about these impacts, nor did they hold themselves as accountable for them. For some time now, however, archaeologists have been grappling with how to define their relationship with the contemporary world. They simply cannot function as they once did.

Notably, archaeologists now struggle with how archaeological research relates to society. They are concerned with questions such as: Who has access to archaeological research? Who benefits? In what ways? Although concerns of relevance are now central, these are not new issues for archaeologists. Fritz and Plog (1970, 412) raised these issues four decades ago, and their words apply today: "We suspect that unless archaeologists find ways to make their research increasingly relevant to the modern world, the modern world will find itself increasingly capable of getting along without archaeologists." Archaeological projects compete for funding dollars and public attention against life-and-death problems: wars, public health issues, human rights concerns, and environmental collapse (Pyburn 2003; Sabloff 2008). Archaeological research may not seem as urgent or important in the minds of taxpayers and citizens. However, the ethical implications of conducting archaeological research are immense. Excavations and cultural tourism have had many negative effects on community members, who have been routinely excluded from heritage management and decision making.

In many communities where archaeologists work, local residents have limited access to the knowledge and other benefits from the research that is taking place in their own backyards. Clearly, archaeologists must become more involved with and must make their work relevant to wider, nonacademic audiences. Some archaeologists now engage communities in the archaeological process to increase archaeology's relevance. "Community archaeology" is growing. Over the past two decades, archaeologists globally are increasingly intersecting in complex and nuanced ways with a range of descendant and nondescendant communities and public audiences (Marshall 2002; Simpson 2010). These developments offer positive directions for archaeology. Elsewhere, I've argued that they constitute a paradigm shift toward collaborative research within the field—a shift that is occurring across the social sciences (Atalay 2008b).

To develop effective methods for collaborating with descendant and local communities, we have to look critically at current archaeological practices with an eye to improving them. Developing collaborative methods and practices for archaeology while creating the theoretical and ethical guidelines that must accompany such practices holds the promise of building a possible future for archaeology. It is an archaeology that is engaged, relevant, ethical, and, as a result, sustainable.

COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH

Relevance and audience are not new issues for archaeology. However, the discipline now seems serious about addressing them. Archaeology's future direction appears closely linked with successes in these areas. Already, many archaeologists seem interested in exploring how to involve local communities in research in substantive ways. Most archaeologists today take seriously the need to share knowledge results with multiple, diverse publics through archaeological education programs. However, democratizing knowledge production now forms a cutting edge of change for archaeologists and how they do their work. The theoretical basis for collaborative practice is firmly established in archaeology. What remains to be established are effective methods for putting collaborative theories and concepts into practice. Problematizing the future of archaeology requires identifying new methodologies....