Anth 3130 - Archaeology and Society

30 Mar 2006

 

 

 

 

 

Plan!

 

* Return Some Posters. Thanks to those who have agreed to let me use their posters in future.   Poster marks will be posted online later today. N.b. the rest of your marked work will be available from me at my office when you come to hand in your final exams on April 12. After that, it will left in the main Anthro office (Vari 2054) to pick up.

* Brief wrap-up remarks

* Hand out Final Exam (also online here)

* Evaluations

 

 

In this course, we've covered topics like these:

- archaeology in popular culture: the image of the archaeologist, the allure of discovery, the thrill of the ancient, the role of the replica

- the relationship of the past to the present (it's not really over! we use it constantly in myriad ways)

- different attitudes towards preservation of the past (e.g. freeze it as it is now, reconstruct it as it was then, continue to use it and live with it, leave it alone and let it decay)

- different ideas about ownership of the past (okay to own and sell the past or access to it, or best to hold it in the public trust, at the national or the international level) e.g. Parthenon Marbles

- deliberate suppression or destruction of the past out of hostility

- nationalism and the past - the way that certain pasts are chosen and constructed, and others dismissed

- destruction of archaeological heritage due to development (e.g. megadams, roads)

- commodification of the past - looting, antiquities sales, and archaeological sites in modern tourism

- And in the readings for today, you saw the effects of war on archaeological heritage, in Iraq and in Afghanistan.... It is yet another cost of war. (Recall also the finds from Troy, and what happened at the end of WWII) (Red List for Iraq, Baghdad Museum)

Kabul Museum before.   Efforts at reconstruction.

 

 

It's not just about what happened a thousand, two thousand, or ten thousand years ago.

It's about us, today and tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE TROJAN HORSE

 

… others, hidden within the horse, were waiting with Ulysses in the Trojan place of assembly. For the Trojans themselves had drawn the horse into their fortress, and it stood there while they sat in council round it, and were in three minds as to what they should do. Some were for breaking it up then and there; others would have it dragged to the top of the rock on which the fortress stood, and then thrown down the precipice; while yet others were for letting it remain as an offering and propitiation for the gods. And this was how they settled it in the end, for the city was doomed when it took in that horse, within which were all the bravest of the Argives waiting to bring death and destruction on the Trojans.  

-Homer, Odyssey, Book VIII

 

 

THE TROJAN HORSE CONCEPT: SOMETIMES AN IDEA CONTAINS WITHIN IT ANOTHER IDEA...

 

 

 

World Heritage - For All Humanity?

-Recall the dilemmas of artifact custody, as in the Parthenon marbles case.

-Themes emerging: competing interests, and even when people are trying to do the right thing.... there are often complications, and it may turn out that they're doing the wrong thing.

 

World Heritage

HERITAGE IN GENERAL:  FROM David Lowenthal’s wonderful book Possessed by the Past.

- heritage is a growth industry on the rise as a focus of patriotism and tourism,

- heritage as a quasi-religious cult that is accepted too readily and questioned too little,

- heritage is sometimes good but can also be "downright diabolical". Not only does it link us with other generations and confer identity, but it can oppress and breed "xenophobic hate". Its potential for good and evil is vast.

- We can’t escape heritage, "but we can learn to face its fictions and forgive its flaws as integral to its strengths".

 

Common Heritage of Humanity/ World Heritage

UNESCO’s 1972 World Heritage Convention has become a very widely accepted instrument, its emphasis on "the world heritage of mankind as a whole" is a fairly new idea in the grand scheme of things, and what this ‘world heritage’ or ‘heritage of mankind’ or ‘common heritage of humanity’ seems to mean in theory and practice is changing quickly.

The core ideas of the World Heritage Convention are that:

"Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. …World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located…. countries recognize that the sites located on their national territory, and which have been inscribed on the World Heritage List… constitute a world heritage "for whose protection it is the duty of the international community as a whole to cooperate".

Many pertinent observations have been made about the idea of global heritage. Here are just four (from  David Lowenthal and also Atle Omland) 

1.  the very notion of world heritage is self-contradictory, because the whole raison d’être of heritage is "confining possession to some while excluding others".

2. two elements to the ‘common heritage of humanity’: the responsibility of everyone to care for it, and the right of everyone to access these resources. The latter is highly objectionable to people who have a particular interest in a certain past, especially some indigenous peoples; this ‘right of access’ that everyone has can certainly be understood as neocolonial.

3. the idea of ‘common heritage’ also contains two stories: first, the story of where we’ve all been, i.e. shared human origins and cultural exchange; and second, a hopeful story of where we’re all going, i.e. towards a globally unified and peaceful existence.

4.  conservation is not actually the ultimate goal here. The ultimate goal of the ‘common heritage’ metanarrative "is peace among people, which is the ultimate aim of UNESCO: 'That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.'"

 

 

So... the idea of 'world heritage' is a Trojan Horse.

World peace is a laudable goal, of course... but is this the best way of achieving it? 

What, then, of the 'common heritage of humanity'? What about local interests versus global interests?

How can we use the past in the most fair way, for the best interests of everyone in the future?

 

 

 

We started with the devastation of Zeugma....

 

NEWS:

ARCHAEOLOGY: NINE COUNTRIES SIGN MEDITERRANEAN MOSAIC CHARTER

(AGI) - Ragusa, Feb. 23 - The "Modica Charter" was signed this morning. The document commits Mediterranean countries to preserve ancient Mosaics that are part of their common cultural heritage. It particularly concerns museums, committing them to respect the regulations approved by the nine signatory countries at the international conference held yesterday and today at Teatro Garibaldi in Modica (Ragusa). Signing for Italy were Undersecretary to the Foreign Ministry, Giuseppe Drago, section chief of Unesco's Venice culture office, Marie Paule Roudil, and Mayor of Modica, Piero Torchi. After the signing an award was given to the special carabinieri squad for cultural protection for having retrieved in Germany a mosaic stolen from Acate, between Ragusa and Gela. (AGI) -
231740 FEB 06

 

 

 

 


 

 

LAST:     Remember the dead.

 

Thanks to those who have gone before us, for all they teach us.