Shaping heritage in the landscape among communities past and present

Abstract

This chapter discusses how ways of knowing the past can alter significantly when the landscape is encountered through collaborative means. This is not intended as a straightforward evaluation of a further case study of community archaeology. Instead, it is about the broader terms of temporality and landscape in which community archaeology and related forms of heritage research could engage. The empowerment that scholars engaged in public or community archaeology speak of can be usefully conceived of in terms of the ability to imagine the possible futures of heritage sites and their associated communities, and to help bring them into being. Empowerment may be complicated by different agendas, perspectives, and politics; yet, at the same time, it is these very processes that give the edge to heritage research by purposefully bringing in multiple voices and practices.