Interrogates the boundaries between amateur and professional archaeology

Until the mid-twentieth century, professional archaeologists readily worked alongside amateur or avocational archaeologists—those who did not have an academic, professional, or governmental affiliation. However, the gulf between professionals and amateurs has grown in recent decades, and amateurs are now often viewed more warily and are even conflated with looters. Amateurs in North American Archaeology traces the trajectory of this change, noting its implications for archaeological studies across the continent.

The volume’s contributors discuss time periods, noteworthy individuals, archaeological societies, and geographical regions, offering a wide-ranging perspective on a topic that is frequently overlooked. Though the book evaluates the past, it also makes crucial claims for the future of effective, inclusive archaeological study, emphasizing the importance of diverse perspectives and alternate interpretations.

This collection of essays is based on the 2005 Society for American Archaeology symposium and presents research that epitomizes Richard I. Ford’s approach of engaged anthropology. This transdisciplinary approach integrates archaeological research with perspectives from ethnography, history, and ecology, and engages the anthropologist with Native partners and with socio-natural landscapes. Research papers largely focus on the U.S. Southwest, but also consider other areas of North America, issues related to museums collections, and indigenous approaches to materials research.