What happens when nobody cares about a historic property?
Why don’t students care about saving People’s Park as a historic property?
Historic Preservation
African American Burial Grounds Need Protection
Archaeologists Cheryl LaRoche and Michael Blakey (1997) described how construction at a the Ted Weiss Federal Building in New York City ground to a halt under withering protests from New York City’s Black community when they realized a slave burial ground was being removed for a construction project. Even though […]
How should we conserve Confederate heritage?
The pain was so great, it took me a few days to digest what happened last week before I could write. The events that went down in Charlottesville have been on many minds. That tends to happen when a massive neo-Nazi and Klu Klux Klan rally disguised as a conservative […]
How we can Buy into Historic Preservation, Part II
(This is the second in a two-part series on how cultural resource management professionals can further historic preservation by purchasing properties with historical buildings or archaeological sites. You can read Part I here.) I started writing these two posts because, as usual, a fellow cultural resource management archaeologist swiftly dismissed my […]
How we can Buy into Historic Preservation, Part I
(This is the first in a two-part series on how cultural resource management professionals can further historic preservation by purchasing properties with historical buildings or archaeological sites.) From its conception, property ownership has always been integral to historic preservation in the United States. The most influential historic preservation groups in […]
Does historic Preservation contribute to gentrification?
As I complete my PhD studies at the University of Arizona, I’ve been offered a position in a much larger Western city (not Phoenix, thank god). My wife, kids, and I are contemplating taking the job and moving but, as with every move where there’s kids involved, we’re doing what […]
See you at the 35th Great Basin Anthropological Conference
Aside from its nickname—The Biggest Little City in the World—I only know two things about Reno, Nevada: It’s the stage for the comical show “Reno 911” and it is the site of the final bowling match in the cult classic comedy “Kingpin”. I’m a huge Bill Murray fan, so Reno […]
At the dawn of historic preservation in the United States
I wasn’t truly a morning person until my son was born. I was still doing cultural resource management archaeology fieldwork at the time—running crews during the day and coming home to be husband/daddy at night. It was grueling. There’s something about wandering in the hot, desert sun all day and […]
What happens when a cultural resource management company becomes a community asset?
Fifty years ago, United States legislators signed a law that intended to use historic preservation to make the world better for future generations. This decision did not come out of thin air. It came from local communities across the country. Preservation advocates had been pushing communities to save cultural treasures […]
What happened at #SHA2016 besides the Seahawks winning again
Archaeologists like to think of themselves as progressive. We believe we are above the meanderings of the rest of society. Enmeshed in our academic achievements and intellectualism, it’s easy to see where those beliefs come from. When you’ve got a decade of college under your belt, it’s easy to think […]