Alfredo González-Ruibal, Spanish National Research Council, Spain
Archaeologists have long been concerned with phenomena that create divisions among human beings: conflict, war, class formation, ethnicity, conspicuous consumption, despotism, the emergence of inequality, and the state. We have been less interested in what brings people together, without violence or coercion. This has been changing recently, with more researchers working on cooperation, collective action and care from the point of view of neoprocessualist, Marxist, feminist, anarchist and indigenous archaeologies. What these new approaches have in common is a concern with intrasocietal relational practices. In this talk I would like to put the focus on external relationality: customs of exchange, hospitality and mutual respect that bring together groups or individuals from communities that are culturally, politically and religiously diverse. I argue that intercultural cohabitation in the past was much more common that we tend to think and that as archaeologists we should strive to visibilize it, not only to better understand the past, but to help construct better futures. I will illustrate my points with examples from the Indian Ocean world.
Alfredo González-Ruibal is a researcher with the Institute of Heritage Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council. His research focuses on the archaeology of the contemporary past, and particularly on the dark side of modernity: war, dictatorship, predatory capitalism and colonialism. He is also interested in the politics of archaeology and the archaeology of politics, with special emphasis on resistance and egalitarianism in long-term perspective. He has conducted fieldwork in Spain, Brazil, Equatorial Guinea and the Horn of Africa. Among his recent books are An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era (Routledge, second edition 2024).
