LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD IN THE CONTESTED TERRITORY OF THE SOUTH-AFRICAN PAST - A PUBLIC VERSUS A PEOPLES FORM OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY OUTREACH

In South Africa, the legacy of colonialism and apartheid includes a hi story of partisan concepts of ethnic and social identity. The long cha rged, sociopolitical context has also affected research questions, as well as public interpretations, about the past. Today, there are calls for a new past for the new South Africa. Historical archaeology can p rovide both a methodology and raw materials which South Africans can u se to form their own interpretations of their past helping, in turn, t o engender pride through a historical consciousness emancipated from c olonial and apartheid ideology. This article presents an overview of t his complex and changing research context and its implications for a h istorical archaeology study of South African frontier identity. Resear ch and ''public'' archaeology efforts concerning material and mythical perspectives of ethnicity are discussed. Employed in a cross-context comparison with African-American research, this study highlights the n eed for decolonized historical archaeology outreach.