Different Roles, Diverse Goals: Understanding Stakeholder and Archaeologists Positions in Community-Based Projects

Abstract

Scholars have discussed the diverse and heterogeneous nature of people that comprise communities in community-based research (McManamon in Am Antiq 56(1):121–130, 1991; Marshall in World Archaeol 34(2):211–219, 2002; Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson, in Scarre, Scarre, (eds) The ethics of archaeology: philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 115–130, 2006; Pyburn, in Okamura, Matuda, (eds) New perspectives in global public archaeology, Springer, New York, pp 29–41, 2011: 31). The divisions within stakeholder groups are highly complex and merit more discussions. By considering community interests and needs, as well as that of different stakeholders, on a case-by-case basis we break down the term community to demonstrate a need for localized approaches to community-based research. Further we discuss some of the differential relationships within community archaeology and roles dictated by legislative requirements and other necessities. Through a community-based research project case study on Inishark and Inishbofin, County Galway Ireland, islands about five miles into the Atlantic Ocean, we explore the different stakeholder groups that comprise island community and the important role archaeologists play in the community-based research.