ABSTRACT
This volume describes fourteen projects at archaeological sites in the Global South that have sought to engage with and benefit the communities living in the vicinity of those sites, often by seeking to support sustainable heritage-based tourism. The sites range from small Neolithic settlements to colonial architecture, from boulder-built fishing pens to huge, monumental sculptures cut into rock faces. All have either suffered from partial destruction or face threats to their future, and usually both; they are in middle- or low-income countries, frequently within areas of arresting economic impoverishment. Moreover, all sites are of considerable academic significance, requiring not only conservation but also further research to address globally relevant issues about human adaptability and culture change. As such, this volume contributes to two overlapping areas of burgeoning literature: the role of heritage for sustainable economic development (e.g. Baillie and Sørensen, 2021; Cernea, 2001; Giliberto and Labadi, 2022; Gould and Burtenshaw, 2014; Hampton, 2005; Labadi, 2022; Labadi et al., 2020, 2021; Madandola and Boussaa, 2023) and the nature of archaeological practice in a post-colonial, ecologically fragile, economically unequal and conflict-ridden world (e.g. Chirikure, 2021; Phillips and Allen, 2010; Waterton and Watson, 2011).
