Understanding ‘the community’ before community archaeology: A case study from Sudan

Abstract

Since 2014, UCL Qatar has undertaken a diverse programme of community engagement as part of an archaeometallurgical research project at the Royal City of Meroe, Sudan. We present initial analyses of anonymous questionnaires conducted as part of this programme. We designed the questionnaires to evaluate qualitatively residents' knowledge about, outlook on, and experience with local archaeological sites, to generate an understanding of the social fabric within which archaeology is situated. Additionally, we collected quantitative demographic data to assess critically the local community composition. Statistical analyses of the questionnaire have highlighted the heterogeneous nature of the local communities, and how their often-divergent knowledge, outlooks, and experiences with archaeology are influenced by numerous social, economic, historical, and political factors: an idealized audience for 'community archaeology' does not exist in our context. Nevertheless, community engagement, leading to community archaeology, should form an integral part of an archaeological research programme from inception to completion.

Exploring attitudes towards the archaeological past: Two case studies from majority Muslim communities in the Nile valley

“…But I suggest that stimulating curiosity and providing new experiences as well as emotional satisfaction are legitimate aims of engagement. Past research has acknowledged that communities are not uniform bodies, but vary in terms of age, ethnic affiliations, economic capacities, and social positions (for Sudan, see Bradshaw, 2017; Humphris and Bradshaw, 2017). Moreover, biographical situations change, and so do entrance narratives and motivations to engage with the past.…”

“…This divergence highlights the need for more case studies to better understand the dynamics which unfold in this field and the factors which impact on them (cf. already Humphris and Bradshaw, 2017: 209–211).…”

The second season of excavations at Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)

“…She argues that community engagement needs to go beyond creating economic opportunities and, as outlined in her study, people are very much engaged with pre-Islamic heritage but they do so on their own terms. Work by Humphris and Bradshaw (2017) demonstrates that communities see the benefits of archaeology in terms of historical information and that this does not need to be separate from any economic benefits (see also Bradshaw 2018). Ultimately, as Näser (2019) points out, it is up to archaeologists to provide open-ended collaboration rooted in the present.…”

Students Are Stakeholders in On-Campus Archaeology

“…Such sentiments, however, were always anecdotal in nature. Inspired by the attempts of several recent projects to integrate public opinion into the design of their archaeological programs (Horrom 2011; Humphris and Bradshaw 2017; Kowalczyk 2016), we sought to more systematically assess how SCU students view the archaeology and heritage of their campus in order to develop research, pedagogical, and public archaeology programs that include students as stakeholders. To that end, we conducted a survey of students consisting of 13 questions, including demographic information.…”

“…In recent decades, there has been a notable growth in theoretical discussions of community, collaborative, and co-creative archaeologies (e.g., Atalay 2012; Bollwerk et al 2015; Colwell 2016; Marshall 2002). Within these writings, a consistent challenge has been the appropriate identification and understanding of stakeholder communities, with practitioners regularly reporting populations to be polysemous and diverse in meaning, composition, opinion, politics, and interests (e.g., Humphris and Bradshaw 2017; Layton 1989; Ozawa et al 2018). Stakeholder theory (e.g., Matthews 2008; Rico 2017; Shakour et al 2019; Zimmerman and Branam 2014) offers a framework for identifying the consequences of archaeological work in the world, as well as the institutional and individual actors who affect it.…”