ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how archaeological knowledge and discourse were incorporated into, privileged by, and then contested within, legislation to protect ‘archaeological resources’ in both the USA and southeastern Australia. The analysis is not simply concerned with historical, legal or policy developments, but will also examine how one particular form of expert knowledge (amongst others) came to play a governmental role in particular social conflicts and how that role became formalized and institutionalized in the development of CRM legislation. The previous chapters have examined the rise of a professional and scientific discourse and the ways in which this discourse became embedded within and framed debates about the nature of CRM and its various practices. In discussing the history of CRM legislation this chapter identifies the ways in which a particular discourse became explicitly mobilized in the framing of key pieces of legislation.
