Archaeological Review from Cambridge - 38.1: Archaeology & Colonialism
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Item Open Access Ending Archaeology(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Ali Sheik, TaariqCatastrophes, from the COVID pandemic to the climate crisis, have come to suffuse the global consciousness. For colonised people, however, catastrophe is nothing new. This paper aims to trace the role of archaeology in the ongoing colonial catastrophe and to outline the challenges faced by decolonising archaeology, by using three examples from distinct locales: 1) the implication of archaeology in settler colonial displacement and neoliberal profiteering in Palestine; 2) its complicity in disaster capitalism and the reproduction of colonial subjectification in Sint Eustatius; 3) its role in the (re)capture of epistemic power by the Global North through the Anthropocene’s collapse narratives. The question we are left with is how do we move on from this realisation towards archaeologies which refute disaster and reaffirm life? Acknowledging abolition, I conclude that it is only through ending archaeology as we know it that we can pursue futures in communication with the histories that coloniality and capital have attempted to erase.Item Open Access Archaeologies of Colonialism and the Indigenous Presence in Brazil: The Remarkable Tupí Guaraní Trajectory(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Silva Noelli, Francisco; Sallum, MarianneThe archaeology of colonialism is a relatively recent discipline. It decolonises practices with dialogues between different epistemologies. As we argue in this paper, decolonisation must begin from a position where the producers of knowledge and their counterparts can converse on an equal footing from different philosophies. Brazil carries the burden of its Indigenous peoples’ extinguished narratives, shaped by a colonial-influenced historiography and archaeology. This paper presents the case of the Tupiniquim, an Indigenous group from São Paulo, commonly referred to as Tupí or Ancient Tupí, who were mistakenly believed to be extinct. The dialogue between epistemes led to decolonisation of the Tupí Guaraní community recognising their persistence, mixed identity, and interest in recovering traditional language and practices.Item Open Access Androcentric Memories of Enslavement, Social Reproduction, and Racial Capitalism in North-Western Senegal(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Michaut, EliasIn eighteenth and nineteenth century Senegal, women constituted most of the enslaved population. Despite this demographic overrepresentation, contemporary memories of enslavement are predominantly androcentric. This article highlights this androcentrism and ties it to changes in labour and gender that occurred under racial capitalism. A study of 100 newspaper articles published in Senegalese and French media during the last decade reveals that 55 percent of them were biased towards describing enslaved people as masculine figures, versus only 11 percent representing them as women. This androcentrism of memories can be attributed to the conflation of the trans-Atlantic trade with the local indigenous trade, the patriarchal nature of the Senegalese state inherited from colonialism, and the transition to racial capitalism under which women’s labour was rendered invisible. Today, these memorial processes hide the negative socio-economic legacies of enslavement on racialised working-class women and children. These findings illustrate the necessity to centre gender dynamics in studies of the memories and archaeology of enslavement.Item Open Access Culture as Colonialism: The Hanseatic League in Bergen and Turku(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Immonen, VisaThe Hanseatic League dominated the Baltic Sea and much of the North Sea trade in the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The influences of the Hansa on material culture have previously been examined as expressions of commerce but also a form of Hanseatic culture. In addition to cultural force, the Hanseatic League has even been characterised as a colonial power. In this article, the concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘colonialism’ are analysed using the towns of Bergen in Norway and Turku in Finland as case studies. What do the two terms mean? How does their conceptual history affect interpretations on the impact of German trade in the two Nordic towns? It is argued that even the notion of ‘Hanseatic culture’ is underpinned by modern colonialism.Item Open Access Archaeology as a Collection of Objets D'Art Artfacts. Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Birth of (Non) Scientific Archaeology(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Kaljanac, Adnan; Hadžihasanović, Jesenko; Abaspahić, ElmaAccording to local historiography, the development of archaeological research and archaeology in Bosnia and Herzegovina began with considerable political changes, marked by the Berlin Congress in 1878 and the establishment of Austro-Hungarian governance. Among numerous political and social transformations, one of the priorities was founding the provincial institution of the National Museum, which has predominantly highlighted the country’s archaeology. From its foundation in 1888 until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the end of the First World War, the National Museum in Sarajevo conducted extensive field research, resulting in many significant discoveries. However, a number of concerns indicate a distinct loss and a neglect of context for these archaeological finds. By analysing the various correspondence of archaeologists of the period, it can be noted that for many known sites and archaeological finds referenced in numerous later interpretations of the past, it is almost impossible to determine even the approximate locations of the discovery. For this reason, we must consider most of the archaeological finds from this era in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a group of artefacts that have only collectable, nonscientific value for modern archaeological understandings of the past.Item Open Access Colonial and National Tensions in Cypriot Archaeology: An Attempt at a Cosmopolitan Resolution(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Nikolaou, ChristosTrauma and ambivalence are common aspects of the post-colonial condition and themes in Cypriot poetry. Yaşın’s (1998) poem acknowledges the present de facto political partition of Cyprus since the Greek coup and Turkish invasion of 1974, with Michanikos’ (1975) poem providing a complementary question as to the lack of necessity of this partition with references to the intercommunal violence of 1963-1964. These questions are linked to both a shared, albeit segregated, trauma from political tragedies and upheaval and a shared nostalgia either for a nationalist past or a bicommunal garden of Eden, the main cleavages of the island’s separation. The question of history and nostalgia in Cyprus, as well as its own identities have been entangled in the context of British colonialism as well as Greek and Turkish nationalism. This article investigates the relationship between archaeology, nationalism, and colonialism in Cyprus, producing segregated archaeological narratives and hidden bicommunal and minority experiences. It outlines a history of Cyprus, its nationalisms, and their effects on intercommunal imaginaries (Ioannou 2020). It will then discuss how ideology has shaped archaeological research in Cyprus (Karageorgis 1969). Lastly, the paper looks at how archaeology has moved towards a more nuanced discussion of ethnicity, the possibility of a common history, and reconciliation through the use of spatial, non-ethnic frameworks.Item Open Access Romanticised Landscapes and Idealised People: Imperialist, Colonialist, and Nationalist Narratives in European/Eurasian Stone Age Archaeology(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Pintar, Andrea; Martinez, AlexandreDecolonising knowledge, especially in academic research, is a key component of the ongoing discussion addressing colonialism. We argue that careful examination of the socio-cultural contexts in which research has been conducted is crucial to identifying misconceptions about the deep past. This work highlights elements of colonialism/imperialism within (1) interpretations of interactions between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis during the Upper Palaeolithic in western Europe, and (2) the appropriation and interpretations of the Siberian (H. sapiens) Palaeolithic-Neolithic history.Item Open Access Revisiting Archaeology and Colonialism(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Negro, Marianna; Gustafson, Julia; Battista Marras, GianItem Open Access Forthcoming issue(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Negro, Marianna; Gustafson, Julia; Battista Marras, GianItem Open Access Where Has the Archaeology of Colonialism Taken Us? Some Thoughts on Where We Stand and Where We Should Go Next(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Lemos, RennanItem Open Access Front matter, contents and acknowledgements(Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 2023-05-01) Negro, Marianna; Gustafson, Julia; Battista Marras, GianItem Open Access Archaeological Review from Cambridge: Archaeology & Colonialism(2023-05-01) Negro, Marianna; Gustafson, Julia; Battista Marras, Gian; Negro, Marianna; Gustafson, Julia; Battista Marras, Gian