Grounding the Past. The Praxis of Participatory Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2007, 360 p. -

This books addresses archaeological field praxis and its role in the political present of Santiago Tilantongo and Santiago Apoala, two communities in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Efforts to involve local stakeholder communities in archaeology have become an important issue worldwide.In this study, Alexander Geurds argues that projects of participatory archaeology, many of which go under the heading of 'community archaeology', cannot dispense with reflexive analysis of field praxis, if they are to avoid idealized and thus untenable narratives of harmonious local collaboration.Past and present archaeological praxis often carries negative connotations in the Mixteca Alta, because archaeological projects have failed to recognize conflicting interests and issues of representation of local and non-local parties. Geurds reviews the constitutive elements of their partnerships, such as official meetings, public presentations and conferences, where the involved local and non-local parties produce conflicting agendas by creating and transforming power relations. He identifies and analyzes the influences attendant on participatory elements through the application of qualitative techniques derived from ethnography and social geography. The first part of the book follows an approach consistent with the regional archaeological tradition focused on materialist analysis of surface artefacts ranging from the Late Formative to the Post classic period (300 BC – AD 1521). Information derived from surface surveying and mapping receives special emphasis. The second part explores alternative means for embedding the production of historical knowledge into local perceptions of landscape and monuments. For this purpose, the author draws on oral history and particularly knowledge of local place names. The book contains the full original conservation assessment forms and ceramic registration forms used in this research.