SAVING THE WORLD & SAVING OURSELVES: Editor’s Picks for Important Reading

There is unease about our futures given a growing concern (finally) about things such as climate change, structural violence and racism, migration and displacement, and food security and starvation. Archaeology is relevant to so many of the world’s pressing problems. While wanting to save the world with our archaeological insights into pandemics, migration, climate change, food insecurity and warfare, we also need to save ourselves. Younger voices in our membership have expressed outrage, despair and frustration with the lack of attention and oversight into the problems of doing archaeology in today’s social and political climate. This includes the ethics and morality of how we obtain, analyze, curate and work with sacred items, burials and objects of patrimony. 

Originally curated for SAA 2022, here are some AAQ articles that will get you thinking about the role of anthropology in saving the world and saving ourselves. Debra L. Martin, Editor