Archaeology In Society hardcover 2012

The practice of Archaeology has many different facets: from academic, to governmental, to cultural resource management, to public media. Contemporary relevance of archaeology means understanding the roles that archaeology has in the present day and a sense of the contributions that it can make in each of these areas, both now and in the future.

Archaeologists come to the field to pursue a variety of interests: teaching, examining history, preserving the environment, or studying a specialized time period or interest. The outside world has a number of other expectations on Archaeology: preservation, tourism, and education, to name a few. From a broad and varied background, the Editors have compiled a rare group of contributors well-qualified to address questions about the current state of Archaeology and its continued relevance.

There is no single answer to how the field of archaeology should develop, and what it can do. Instead, the authors in this volume lay out the many ways in which archaeology is and can be relevant to the present day- creating a state-of-the-art tool for archaeologists to understand the work of others in the field, and address the challenges they all face.