The Challenge of Archaeological Interpretation and Practice that Integrates between the Science of the Past and Local Knowledge ความท้าทายของการตีความและปฏิบัติการทางโบราณคดีที่บูรณา การระหว่างวิทยาศาสตร์ของอดีตกับภูมิปัญญาท้องถ่ิน Rasmi Shoocongdej PEER REVIEWED Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Archaeology, Received January 7, 2020 Accepted July 24, 2020 Silpakorn University Published December 15, 2020 DOI: Correspondence:
[email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.26721/spafajournal.v4i0.632 Copyright: @2020 SEAMEO SPAFA and author. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution Non Commercial-No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC- ND 4.0), which permits copying, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This is part of a special section entitled ‘Integrating Local Perspectives into Southeast Asian Archaeology’ edited by R. Shoocongdej, P. Kanjanajuntorn and W. Clarke. Abstract Contemporary archaeologists can no longer focus only on scientific research, they must also work with different interest groups whose use of archaeology may have positive and negative consequences. The dichotomy of foreigner versus local has been prominent in the discourse of the post-modern era. Archaeologists seem to be aware of their ethical and political roles when archaeology is used for knowledge production, economic development, and other public policy goals at the local, national and international levels. Consequently, in recent years the ethical issues involved in working with multiple communities or multi-ethnic groups have become important concerns for archaeologists globally. In the case of Thailand, most archaeologists generally have not focused on these issues, although there are many minority ethnic groups there, especially near the borders with neighboring countries.