Ellen,
I have hemmed and hawed about contacting you, in part because I am not sure about getting to the SHA in Oakland. But I think I would like to contribute if you have not closed the door on accepting abstracts. There are two case studies that I think would fit into the topic of your session, but let me run them by you first. Then, if you are still accepting abstracts and if this sounds acceptable, I will clean it up.
One of the case studies revolves around the issue of projects going to the lowest bidder, because the client is the one who gets to decide that. What results from this, at least in the case with which I was involved, is the lack of experience, knowledge, and ability of the proposal winner to understand the site(s) and investigate it or them properly and hence a loss of the site and its data and the significance it might hold for descendants as well as archaeologists. In this specific case, the sites, which I identified through documents research, were in all probability the (ephemeral) homes of the self emancipated in a community in southwest Michigan known to have welcomed and supported them. In tandem with the problem of client-chooses-lowest bidder is the issue that those with little or no experience or training in historical archaeology are the ones investigating historic sites. While we might no longer be referred to as doing ‘hysterical archaeology’ (remember that?), there is the persistent and lingering problem that there appear to be some number (a lot?) of pre-contact period archaeologists who think just anyone can do this and slough off the historic sites and artifacts to their workers with only undergrad degrees and no experience. (Though I have been amazed and disappointed more than once by some I’ve hire with Master’s degrees from programs that have historical archaeology programs and whose professors I know, at their lack of ability to tell a cut square nail from a wire nail, or to i.d. nineteenth c. ceramics. This is off topic and I won’t delve into, but it is worth noting that something is going on there, too.)
In the second case study, for which I just completed the report, the location of the log home of free born African Americans who migrated to Michigan from New England might have been found if the site could have been investigated via the typical phase I shovel testing and phase II excavation, instead of monitoring a bulldozer because the location was a paved parking lot. As it was, the effects of a bulldozer, in at least this case, may have served to destroy the site before it could be observed. While I have not yet been able to locate descendants, that effort continues.
As an aside, both of these cases have been heartbreaking for me, and my wish and goal is to see these approaches changed - though I am not entirely hopeful.
I won’t preach or rant - though it sounds like it here, but endeavor to make it a paper that points out current problems and issues that remain with us today. But I have to say, sometimes when I see some of the work that passes for CRM, it unfortunately reminds me of what Binford said, to the effect that if it is not going to be done well or right, why even do it? Just to make money?!?
If this is anything that fits into your vision for this symposium, please let me know. I will clean up the above to an appropriate length and get an abstract to you asap.
Thanks.
Misty
Misty Jackson, Ph.D., RPA 16457
Arbre Croche Cultural Resources LLC
214 S Main Street
Leslie, Michigan 49251
517-525-3060
[log in to unmask]
arbrecroche.com
Center for Maritime and Underwater Resource Management
cmurm.org
On Jul 7, 2023, at 2:08 PM, Ellen Chapman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello all,
As a followup to my recent email, I'm now putting together a panel for SHA
in Oakland in 2024 about cultural heritage policy, legal issues, political
economy, and how that affects descendant communities and stakeholders'
experience of advocating for archaeological places important to them. I
welcome additional papers in the session, and the abstract is below. Topics
relevant to tribal communities are especially welcomed given the conference
location! If interested, please get in touch by late Thursday or early
Friday morning to allow us to finalize the submission of your paper before
the deadline on *Saturday July 15th*.
Thanks so much!
Ellen
Session: Cultural Heritage Laws and Policies, Political Economy, and the
Community Importance of Archaeological Sites
A significant portion of archaeology across the world is now conducted
because of cultural heritage laws, policies, and regulations, and is funded
not by passionate researchers or stakeholder communities, but by proponents
who are required to pay for it to complete their projects. This session
will explore the challenges and opportunities of archaeological
investigations that occur within a process that is regulated or influenced
by government policy, considering the roles of archaeological researchers
and companies; descendant communities; project proponents; tribes;
consulting parties; and local, state, and federal government agencies.
Papers in the session will explore the political economy of these dynamics,
exploring how archaeological outcomes are influenced by financial capacity,
political access, and legal systems. The session will also explore how
groups with heightened connections to these archaeological places, such as
tribes, consulting parties, and descendant families and communities,
navigate these dynamics when working to interpret and preserve their
heritage.
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