Abstract
In Japan, a great majority of archaeological work is carried out by archaeologists belonging to local government and semipublic archaeological units in the realm of rescue archaeology. These archaeologists are accountable to the public for their work, and as such often share one common interest: how to make archaeology more accessible to the public. This interest has brought about a number of public archaeology programs aiming to promote archaeological education for the general public. For example, public presentation of an archaeological site in the course of excavation work, known as genchi setsumeikai or gensetsu, has been an established practice in Japan for several decades. Another popular practice – which is the subject of discussion in this paper – is participatory excavations, in which members of the public can take part to experiment with archaeological fieldwork.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, there is a criticism that, although local ethnic minority groups such as Koreans took part in the Tsukinowa excavation, their views were not taken into consideration in the process of reconstructing the past, and the framework of nationalist history was therefore reaffirmed (Kokuni 2003).
- 2.
This phenomenon can be observed on the national level; for example, the increasing popularity of exhibitions on the recent past, such as the Showa period.
- 3.
This can be attested by phrases such as “the oldest in Japan” or “the largest in Japan” that frequently appear in media reports on archaeology even when Japan is not the main focus of the reports.
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Muraki, M. (2011). Sharing the Pleasure of Excavation: The Public Archaeology Program at the Miharashidai Site, Japan. In: Okamura, K., Matsuda, A. (eds) New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0341-8_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0341-8_20
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