The Relationship between Historical Events and Legislation on the Creation of Knowledge from Archaeological Excavations

Abstract

I aim to suggest that social hierarchies and social networks of the government have a lasting impact on the creation of archaeological knowledge as reflected through the policies of the ruling class and government during historical events, the enactment of relevant legislation, and the archaeological employment system that responds to government policy. I use the Actor-Network theory to answer the main question of this research: How do the actors in archaeological excavations create archaeological knowledge? I followed the government by tracing the history of the state’s creation of archaeological concepts, along with the study of relevant legislation and regulations.
It was found that the development of Thai archaeological concepts was mainly based on the ideas of aristocrats. Archaeology was used to respond to political policies. The public was not the main actor that affected the creation of archaeological knowledge. In addition, the establishment of the archaeological outsourcing system between the government and the private sector, and the enactment of legislation that focused on defining meanings rather than issuing regulations on the process of knowledge creation, had impacts on other actors who are working in the fieldwork, causing them to produce knowledge that was not concerned with the disappearance of archaeological data from the urgent operations in the fieldwork.