1st Edition
Participatory Archaeology and Heritage Studies Perspectives from Africa
Participatory Archaeology and Heritage Studies: Perspectives from Africa provides new ways to look at and think about the practice of community archaeology and heritage studies across the globe. Long hidden from view, African experiences and experiments with participatory archaeology and heritage studies have poignant lessons to convey about local initiatives, local needs, and local perspectives among communities as diverse as an Islamic community on the edge of an ancient city in Sudan to multi-ethnic rural villages near rock art sites in South Africa. Straddling both heritage studies and archaeological practice, this volume incorporates a range of settings, from practical experiments with sustainable pottery kilns in Kenya, to an elite palace and its hidden traditional heritage in Northwestern Tanzania, to ancestral knowledge about heritage landscapes in rural Ethiopia. The genesis of participatory practices in Africa are traced back to the 1950s, with examples of how this legacy has played out over six decades—setting the scene for a deeply rooted practice now gaining widespread acceptance. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage.
Foreword Carol McDavid and Suzie Thomas
Introduction: Participatory Archaeology and Heritage Studies: Insights from Africa Peter R. Schmidt
1. Rediscovering Community Archaeology in Africa and Reframing its Practice Peter R. Schmidt
2. Archaeology and the local community in Africa: A retrospective Merrick Posnansky
3. Seniority through ancestral landscapes: Community archaeology in the highlands of southern Ethiopia Kathryn Weedman Arthur, Yohannes Ethiopia Tocha, Matthew C. Curtis, Bizuayehu Lakew and John W. Arthur
4. Community archaeology and heritage in coastal and Western Kenya Chapurukha M. Kusimba
5. Contests between heritage and history in Tanganyika/Tanzania: Insights arising from community-based heritage research Peter R. Schmidt
6. Community involvement and heritage managements in rural South Africa Nthabisend Mokoena
7. Understanding ‘the community’ before community archaeology: A case study from Sudan Jane Humphris and Rebecca Bradshaw
8. Community Cultural Identity in Nature-Tourism Gateway Areas: Maun Village, Okavango Delta World Heritage Site, Botswana Susan Osireditse Keitumetse and Michelle Genevieve Pampiri
Biography
Peter R. Schmidt has studied and conducted archaeological, ethnographic, and heritage research in Africa for more than five decades. He is the author of twelve books about African archaeology, technology, history, and heritage as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.
