As an archaeologist working throughout the British West Indies for the past several years, I have found myself drawn to roads less frequently traveled. While conducting surveys and excavations on behalf of various government and non-government agencies such as the Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos National Trust, I soon discovered that a void existed in the dialogue between archaeologists and the communities in which they worked, particularly between archaeologists and those who had been historically marginalized, namely those of African Caribbean descent. It appeared as though people whose ancestors had arrived as enslaved Africans were being excluded from the management of their own heritage resources historically and contemporarily. In order to determine the degree to which archaeologists included or excluded African Caribbean communities and associated archaeological sites from the cultural resource management process, I conducted a close examination of the activities of archaeologists. Two questions had to be addressed. First, were the histories and heritage of those with ancestral ties to sites being surveyed and excavated being taken into consideration in the cultural resource management process? Second, were the histories of colonialists being defined as uncontestable, with little or no regard for the experiences of African Caribbean communities?
Public Personnel Management Process Capability Assessment
