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Sustainable archaeology: soothing rhetoric for an anxious institution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2019

Richard M. Hutchings Open the ORCID record for Richard M. Hutchings [Opens in a new window]  and
Marina La Salle
Richard M. Hutchings*
Affiliation:
Institute for Critical Heritage and Tourism (ICHT), 330 Spruce Avenue, Gabriola Island, British Columbia V0R 1X1, Canada
Marina La Salle
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vancouver Island University (VIU), 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, British ColumbiaV9R 5S5, Canada
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: rmhutchings@icht.ca)
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Abstract

The primary objective of sustainable archaeology is to maintain the profession of archaeology—that is, to sustain itself. An effort to rebrand the discipline as virtuous, sustainable archaeology is self-serving and reflects larger institutional anxieties around an unethical past and an uncertain future. An example of futurist rhetoric and doublespeak, sustainable archaeology exists because archaeology is unsustainable.

Keywords

ethicsfuture-makingfuture studiesheritage futuressustainabilitysustainable archaeology
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 372 , December 2019 , pp. 1653 - 1660
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019

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