Where is this going?: An idea

Here's a summary of my research proposal, as submitted to the kind folks at the Anthropology department. In case you're wondering what this is all about anyway. This study will take an anthropological look at community-based archaeological practice as a site of inter-cultural “entanglement,” in which a wide range of people, ideas and agendas converge, or diverge, on understandings of history, the past and heritage. Through a combination of ethnographic interviews of individuals involved in an archaeological excavation in the Indigenous Bolivian community of Qhunqhu Liqiliqi, this study will explore the multiplicity of perspectives, experiences and expectations pertaining to one excavation. Its focus will be on the experiences and opinions among three groups involved in the excavation – local residents, prominent members of local organizations and members of the archaeological team – and perceived outcomes of the Project, in terms of understandings of history and heritage, and the economic, social, and cultural impact on individuals and the community and large. While this is a preliminary study, intended to gain a sense of the questions which need to be asked and the criteria to be used in a more comprehensive study of community- archaeologist interactions, this study has its own purposes as well. One of the central aims of this study is to increase and improve communication among the groups involved in Project Machaqa, particularly by helping coordinating archaeologists to gauge perceptions and expectations of the Project among community members, and inspiring a greater level of discussion about the value and meaning of the excavation for both local and archaeological communities. In this way, both parties may be better able to understand and improve the complex social and cultural process that is archaeological excavation, and enable archaeological practice to meet the needs and expectations of all parties involved.