Knowledge about archaeological field schools in Africa: The Tanzanian experience

Despite the increase number of African professionals in archaeology over the last three decades, knowledge about the history and state of contemporary archaeological field schools and how Africans are trained in the discipline is poor. This paper argues that close examination and open discussion of past and current archaeological field schools are a must if transformations of archaeological practices in Africa are expected to take place. Using the Tanzanian experience, it presents the history and current state of archaeological field training. The paper focuses on the ethics of training Africans in archaeology introduced in the 1980s and the changes that occurred between then and now, concluding with the successes and issues that arise from these pedagogies. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.