Abstract
The construction of an archaeological identity within the US archaeological profession has long determined how significance is constructed as part of US preservation law and regulatory policy. In this chapter, this codified framework guiding professional practice is set aside to examine instead a determination of significance by a living community, and their construction of common memory at and with an archaeological site overtime. This study involves local public involvement with the ruins of the President’s House Site, 1790–1800, located in Independence National Historical Park (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA), which are central to a commemoration memorializing the story of freedom and slavery at the birth of the USA. The public’s activity with and at the site begs heritage resource specialists to more broadly interpret professional guidelines so as to account for that which society may value as significant rather than what the heritage profession privileges.
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Levin, J., Jeppson, P.L. (2019). Archaeology as a Building Block for Popular Memory. In: Jameson, J.H., Musteaţă, S. (eds) Transforming Heritage Practice in the 21st Century. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14327-5_15
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