Archaeology, for Whom? A Public Archaeological Perspective on an Accessible Approach in Archaeology

Abstract

Accommodating multivocality and democracy in heritage management and in archaeology has been done for decades around the world. Its advantages do not limit to benefiting the public, but archaeology and heritage as well. In Sri Lanka, the relationship between the public and archaeology, which should be the foundation that build and entertain the multivocality in heritage is strained and not paid enough attention. The goal of this paper is to examine the facets of this relationship and where and why it had been unsuccessful, and finding out the answers as to how to make it healthier. Approaching to the questions through qualitative research methods, we conducted interviews, and analysed the data applying the method of the grounded theory. The research showed the existence of discordances between the people of heritage areas and the archaeology authorities, and the extremely limited say and contribution of the people of those areas and in any place generally, to archaeology. The outreach to the people is there, but it has not grasped the importance or the magnitude that its scope should be broadened to. The discordances and the distance that are visible in the relationship between the public and the archaeology has the potential to harm the heritage. It is imperative that due attention should be focused on this. The public archaeology approach of inclusion of the people in archaeology and heritage as active participants has the prospective of answering a majority of these questions.

Keywords: archaeology, heritage, people, public archaeology, multivocality