Looking for an Identity: Archaeologists, Local Communities, and Public Archaeology in Peru

Abstract

In Peru, public archaeology has not yet been firmly established as a field of archaeological study. There is no formal education in the field, although there are diplomas or master’s courses focusing on Cultural Resource Management and undergraduate courses on museum studies and ethical issues relating to archaeology. Traditionally, most of the efforts to disseminate information about archaeological discoveries and theories to the general public have been made through school textbooks, newspapers, and exhibitions in local museums and archaeologists have seldom been in direct contact with the public; their studies have usually been discussed only in specialist circles.