An Archaeology of Relevance: Community empowerment Through Archaeological Research and Heritage Management in Botswana.
Cynthia O. Mooketsi
- Osaka-JP : National Museum Ethnology, 2018.
- páginas 85-101: ilustraciones blanco y negro.
- Irregular
- no. 99 (2018)
- Senri Ethnological Studies ; no. 99 .
- National Museum of Ethnology Osaka. .
San communities in Botswana are the most scientifically researched, and simultaneously, the most economically marginalised. This situation is largely attributable to research approaches, which have used methods and theories that are not entirely sensitive to Indigenous Knowledge (IK). IK in this study refers to local people's life experiences, regarded as a body of knowledge that must be used as a key component of the larger research methodology and thus made to augment other methods and theories chosen by scholars. Approached in this way, researchers would not be the only major beneficiaries of knowledge about San communities. Our study demonstrates that the concept of community empowerment in Botswana can be fostered more successfully if decision-making and policies are inclusive of people's life experiences, as shown by the Tshane project, where participatory research investigated community needs and identified possible ways of addressing those needs along with strategies for implementation. This chapter presents community empowerment as a process that facilitates achievement of social goals leading to a co-operative, confident, and influential community that can make organised and inclusive decisions. Using archaeological research and heritage management as a platform, and taking Tsodilo as a case study, we intend to demonstrate how lessons learned in Tshane are useful to address the issue of community empowerment as it relates to archaeological research and heritage management. The local communities at Tsodilo will be engaged in studying the Tsodilo landscape through scaled sketch mapping, counter mapping, occupancy mapping, multimedia cartography, and ethnographic surveys.