ABSTRACT
This book has argued that archaeological discourse, practice, theory and the discipline’s sense of its own ‘identity’ are governed and regulated by the processes of CRM. CRM, which may be defined in Western contexts as the process concerned with the management of material or tangible cultural heritage, is also ultimately about the management and governance of the meanings and values that the material heritage is seen to symbolize or otherwise represent. Those values, and the cultural, historical or social identities that are linked to heritage places and items, become themselves governed and regulated. Archaeological discourse is therefore constitutive of the practice of CRM, which means that it is archaeological knowledge that is explicitly implicated in this governance. Archaeologists therefore become a legitimate and specific target of interests, such as Indigenous peoples, who question the validity of archaeological pronouncements and judgments that influence governmental and bureaucratic perceptions of their cultural identity.
