World Archaeological Congress will discuss archaeology as identity politics
World Archaeological Congress will open on January 14th-18th, 2013, at Dead Sea, Jordan.
World Archaeological Congress was founded to support the research of the so-called indigenous cultures. However, the development of globalization as a noninvertible process has been generally changing the function of this non-for-profit institution into a place where one in four years the scholars of all over the world may report their best world valuable archaeological discoveries and find the best directions for development of global archaeology. In the global society all cultures have equal rights and require equal treatment and interest, especially having in mind that contemporary archaeology has been blooming as a new most valuable discipline, as well as archaeology is always essential part of the political clothes of any country.
Jan Turek and Nick Shepherd offer the theme Archaeology as Identity Politics for the meeting in January 2013 in Jordan. The topic is crucial for development of archaeology as a humanistic discipline. The organizers appreciate proposals for presentations on case studies from totalitarian regimes (past and present), as well as on any aspects of direct/indirect or vissible/ invissible pressure on archaeology to serve specific non-humanistic needs. It seems the call is for critical opinions which corresponds to the current tendency of critical rebuilding of archaeological research and practice as a trustful approach to culture.
The situation with archaeology especially in the post-communist countries is still critical. The recent development of Ratiaria (Bulgaria) project when the archaeologists cannot get permission for excavation shows that doing archaeology in Eastern Europe in many cases is still a political/subjective matter.
After Lozny’s contribution to socialization of archaeology as a political identity at UK TAG, the new session of Tuker and Shpherd continues extremely hot and needed in society attempt for rehumanization of archaeology by rebuilding its identity and redefining its role in society as a powerful enculturation and socialization means in the community everydayness. It is interesting that Turek comes from the traditions of Czech archaeology where the role of the Cold War totalitarism is still not well revealed. Marek Zvelebil, one of the best scholar-archaeologists in later 20th century – early 21st century, had Czech origin. He passed away (July 7, 2011) just before delivering a presentation on the communist archaeology which was waited with great interest from the world progressive archaeology.
Archaeology as a subject dealing with past and ancient societies is seemingly apolitical. This may be the feeling of some archaeologists who have never experienced ideological obstacles in their work or do not have direct experience working under restrictive particular ideologies. In reality, archaeology has often been used in creating background for political propaganda emphasizing the historical roles of a particular social class, ethnicity, or religion over others. In this theme we would welcome sessions on the political experience of archaeologists working under different circumstances of past or current political regimes. How is current archaeology contributing towards the shaping of national, religious and social identity? How is archaeology involved in constructing the current political agendas and how has archaeological knowledge of past experience influenced the current discussions on the future of the humanity? How does archaeological interpretation of the past shape the current social reality and ideology (and vice versa). How is our reading of the past formed by current ideologies and social/political orders?
We would also like to hear the stories of archaeologists working under totalitarian regimes and their experience with limitation of academic and political freedoms, as well as, methods of abusing archaeological knowledge for political propaganda.
How have archaeologists responded to these issues?: Restrictions of academic texts and representations of the past; Restrictions of other academic liberties; Restrictions of other rights such as political and religious freedoms; Segregations of ethnicity, race or nationalities; Archaeology as economic development: community engagement and grassroots movements
The deadline for proposals for sessions is August 30th, 2012, while that for the proposal of individual contributions is September 30th, 2012.