Heritage, Neighborhoods and Cosmopolitan Sensibilities: Poly-Communal Archaeology in Deerfield, Massachusetts

Abstract

Cosmopolitan sensibilities acknowledging mutual obligations and human interconnectedness can orient people navigating the complexities of neighborhood and other forms of community-based archaeology. I suggest that practice aimed at engaging in ethical heritage work in neighborhoods can benefit from fostering cosmopolitan values among participants and stakeholders. I outline a model for “poly-communal archaeology,” an approach that takes a cosmopolitan stance and engages multiple stakeholders in neighborhood archaeology and heritage work. I then reflect on a case study of heritage work that employs such an approach in the neighborhood of “Old Deerfield” in western Massachusetts, U.S.A. In this case, a cosmopolitan sensibility is deployed to restructure the social relations that underpin heritage work.