Making Cultural Heritage Significant for the Public. The Role of Researchers in Encouraging Public Awareness and Local Pride

Abstract

The municipality of Olavarría, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, has a rich, diverse, and ancient natural and cultural heritage, although this is not well known by the local community. For this reason, an itinerant exhibition was developed to promote public access to scientific information and community awareness concerning the importance of local heritage. This project was the starting point of an integral programme of public outreach and science education, whose main goal is to facilitate intellectual and physical access to academic knowledge by local communities. After seven years of development, several lessons have been learned, including the need to increase stakeholders' participation and the exploration of new strategies of communication in order to engage different segments of the public.

Myth, science and community: The archaeological project of San Lourenzo hillfort (Galicia, Spain)

“…Because they are symbols of social cohesion that allow us to look towards the future with a certain degree of hope and optimism. The parish is still thriving and is proud of reviving its cultural landscape (Endere et al 2018). Some of the neighbouring parishes believe that the people of Cereixa are throwing away their money, that they are mad because they did a procession without a priest (the parish priest was off sick and his substitute could not walk much due to his own health problems).…”

Conservación [Crítica] Social en Arqueología

“…A pesar de su diversidad, la arqueología pública se identifica, como su nombre indica, con un manifiesto interés en la participación del público 1 , pero no queda claro cuál es el mejor método para conocer al público, o de conocer de qué forma el público se relaciona con la arqueología o el patrimonio (Cardona 2016;Endere et al 2018;Moshenska 2013Moshenska , 2015Richardson y Almansa Sánchez 2015).…”

Boom and Bust Archaeology

“…Examining the Historical Resource Impact Assessment (HRIA) system, this article aims to show research in progress to join current conversations surrounding cultural heritage management systems in the 21 st century. Particularly, the question of heritage meaning (Butler, 2016), public engagement and ownership (Benetti et al, 2020;Endere et al, 2018), and most markedly, the nature of heritage and myth (Sterling, 2016). It is this contemporary questioning of the efficacy of heritage inscription as an imposed and limited settler-colonial act prompts further engagement with the government infrastructure which relies archaeological evidence to determine value.…”