ABSTRACT
The fifth chapter takes a step back to rethink our assumptions and methods of community engagement as academic archaeologists, anthropologists and museologists. It asks once again the fundamental question of why work collaboratively with a community in the first place. Furthermore, it considers whether the initial decision to start a community project influences the course, the control and the ownership of the final product in any significant way. It examines our definitions of engagement and questions their principal assumptions and expectations as instrumental in shaping collaborative projects in the field. Finally, we lay out a tentative examination of decision-making in the field and propose to re-examine the aims of community engagement in heritage and archaeology in particular as tools for building democratic processes.
