Convened By
Yorke Rowan (USA ) and Hanan Charaf (Lebanon)
Theme Details
One part of “The Past” is manifest in the concept of “heritage,” a concept easily defined but with complex and far-reaching implications. In the scholarly literature of anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and historic preservationists, as well as in popular literature and journalistic accounts, it is increasingly apparent that competing actors, institutions and forces sometimes work at cross-purposes to interpret and represent the past.
The sessions in this theme explore the different processes and controls upon heritage that form attempts to present the past, protect the past, and understand how the past is used for modern constructs – constructs as varied as creating a backdrop to commercial ventures or consolidating identities. Heritage both draws people together, and instills antagonistic factions. How do those considered experts on understanding, interpreting and presenting the archaeological past negotiate the terrain between that of the “expert” – often funded by the dominant cultures or governments – and the multitude of other voices, often those of the disenfranchised, minorities, and dispossessed? This theme provides the forum to situate and discuss commonalties from around the world, to explore the complexities of tourism in developed and developing countries, and to consider the implications for archaeology and academic or popular understandings of the past.
Sessions in this theme will extend the analysis of archaeology and heritage to the influence of the global age, particularly the effects of mass tourism, the commodification of the experience, and artifacts from archaeology. This focus is upon site interpretations, protection of antiquities and historic preservation, and the challenge presented by populist narratives, tourism and popular media within a context of increasing global contact.
Possible sessions:
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Traci Ardren and A. Hale)
Practicing Archaeology. Pillage of Sites, Trafficking of Artifacts
(Christina Luke and Morag Kersel)
Contact:
Yorke Rowan,
Pennsylvania State University,
Erie & Smithsonian Institution,
National Museum of Natural History,
Washington, D.C.
USA
email: ymrowan@hotmail.com
Hanan Charaf,
French Institute for Archaeology in the Near East
(Institut Français d’Archéologie du Proche-Orient).
P.O.Box: 11-1424
Beirut
Lebanon
Tel: 00 961 3 954 852
Fax: 00 961 1 615 866
email: hcharaf@yahoo.fr
Sessions
Practicing Archaeology? Pillage Of Sites, Trafficking Of Artifacts
Organized By
Christina Luke (USA)
Morag Kersel (UK)
Session Details
Organizers:
Christina Luke
cmluke13@aol.com
Morag Kersel
Department of Archaeology
Downing Street
University of Cambridge
Cambridge UK CB2 3DZ
mmk29@cam.ac.uk
The archaeological past continues to be a vibrant area of research for archaeologists, art historians, dealers and collectors. Management of the remains of this past, sites and artifacts, also continues to inspire vital debate among these various interest groups. Through a series of case studies, this session explores how nations implement legislation for protecting cultural heritage, the continuing effect of pillage on archaeological sites, and the current state of the market for antiquities. Possible solutions for defining, managing, and developing cultural patrimony policy, which take into account the conflicting strategies for managing the past will also be considered.
National and international policy frame management plans for protecting and preserving cultural patrimony. Umbrella organizations like ICOM, UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM have formulated policies aimed at controlling the export and import of illicit goods, protection of the moveable and immoveable, and worldwide consensus on the safeguarding of cultural items from the source (usually less-developed) nations. Globally, national legislation vesting ownership of sites and antiquities in governments has been enacted, but is this an effective means of protecting cultural heritage? Papers in this session will examine this aspect of cultural property protection.
Pillage, usually defined as the illicit excavations of archaeological sites in search of salable artifacts, exacerbates our loss of knowledge about the past through destruction of built architecture and associated remains, that is, the context. Papers in this session focus on how archaeological research and publication contributes to “valuing” monuments and artifacts, modern economies encourage looting, and the continued devastating effects of pillage to context and site management. In addition, authors explore whether the “results” of archaeological research and pillage are apparent on the antiquities market.
Finally, solutions to this complex debate are investigated as part of an international effort at stemming the loss of cultural heritage, while recognizing the existence of competing interest groups and the part they play—positive and negative—in cultural property protection.
Speakers:
Olawale Ajani (Nigeria)
Hilary du Cros (Hong Kong)
Jorgelina García Azcárate (Agrentina)
John Henderson (USA)
Robert Hicks (USA)
Julie Hollowell-Zimmer (USA)
Morag Kersel (Canada)
Jackson Kuhl (USA)
Nefeli Laparidou (Greece)
Christina Luke (USA)
Lena Mortensen (USA)
Manuel Roman-Lacayo (Nicaragua/USA)
Christopher Roosevelt (USA)
Person (India)
Presentations
Losing Your Sites And Your Marbles: Pillage In The Ulúa Valley Of Northwestern Honduras
John Henderson (Cornell University, USA) and Christina Luke Structural Complexity and Social Conflict in Managing the Past at Copán, Honduras
Lena Mortensen (Indiana University, USA)
Looting Lydia: The Destruction Of An Archaeological Landscape In Western Turkey
Christopher Roosevelt and Christina Luke From the Ground to the Buyer: A Market Analysis of the Illicit Trade in Antiquities.
Morag Kersel (University of Cambridge, UK)
Conserving The Past (critical Appraisal Of Historical Consciousness).
Olawale Ajani (Dept of Archaeology/Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria) ¿Que se pierde cuando se roba?
Jorgelina García Azcárate (Intituto de Arqueología y Museo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán)
St. Lawrence Island’s Legal Market In Archaeological Goods
Julie Hollowell-Zimmer (Indiana University, USA) A Case Study of the Looting at Indian Head
Jackson Kuhl (Yale University, USA)
Perspectives On Repatriation For A New Century
Nefeli Laparidou (University of Cambridge, UK) A Model Anti-Looting Educational Program
Robert D. Hicks (Law Enforcement Services Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services , USA)
[Yet To Come]
Manuel Roman-Lacayo (Nicaragua/USA) Trafficking of African Artifacts; The case of Cameroon’s Western Grasslands Region
Tata Simon Ngenge (Department of History, University of Yaounde)
Session Time
Day Sunday Date 22nd June
Time 9AM-1PM Room Shahan 204
Archaeology, Museums And National Identity
Organized By
Lina G Tahan (UK)
Session Details
The following session will examine both the museum and heritage industries as sites of contention. The geographical foci of the session will be open to different regions as this might generate fruitful discussions. The last few years have seen substantive changes in terms of the repatriation debate, cultural identity, nationalism, colonialism within museums and heritage industries. Museums serve the public good in broadly two realms: preservation of collective heritage and general education concerning the items comprising their holdings.
“Heritage” has become a buzzword in modern archaeology, and debate concerning its concepts and theories of its management has polarised much of the archaeological community. The value of museums and heritage as zones of interaction between various professional communities and the general public has sharply come into focus over the past decades. Working collaboratively with the communities is essential as dialogue is needed between archaeologists and the public.
This session will consider the importance of archaeological objects as political symbols, the use of the past as an expression of political agendas, and how this can gain expression in the collection of a museum and heritage sites. It demonstrates that the past forms a silent background to the nation. It is the history, the writing and the perception of the past which plays a much more vocal role. It is the contemporary impact of the perception of the past, and the value placed on the past for future needs, which have an influence on the theoretical underpinnings and practice of archaeology and heritage management. It is therefore necessary for archaeologists to consider the implication of such political influences on the knowledge of the past, to challenge the reasoning behind individual or state involvement with the past and to question the basis on which national and cultural identity is formed.
We would welcome papers that address any of the above issues and particularly call for collaborative papers which demonstrate both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives.
Contact information:
Lina G. Tahan (lgt20@hermes.cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge, Department of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, ENGLAND. Tel: +44 (0)1223 330 467, Fax: +44 (0)1223 333 503
Presentations
Palestine, A Despoiled Archaeological Heritage
Najat El Hafi (Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, England) Museum archaeology and the Mediterranean’s prehistoric cultural heritage
Robin Skeates (Lecturer in Museum Studies, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Durham, UK)
The French Paradoxe : So Many Kinds Of Archaeological Museums For A Single Thematic
Anne Nivart (Département des Galeries, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris) Heritage, local identity and nationalism: A Japanese case
Yumiko Nakanishi (University of Cambridge, UK)
Archaeological Museums And National Contentions In The Lebanon
Lina Tahan The Quest for the True Endeavour: Archaeology, Materiality and Authenticity
Tracy Ireland
Divine Ethnographers: Cultural Redemption?
Francois P. Coetzee (Museum of Anthropology & Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography & Environmental Studies, University of South Africa) With Every Footstep: Saga Landscapes and Cultural Heritage in Iceland
Elisabeth Ward (based on a paper co-authored with Arthur Bjorgvin Bollason)
How To Make A Cultural Mosaic/Comment Faire Une Mosaique Culturelle: The Use Of ‘heritage’ In The Fabrication Of Canadian Identity
Michelle A. Lelievre (University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Session Time
Day Monday Date 23rd June
Time 9AM-1PM Room Life Cycle Auditoriu
Ethical Interactions: National Modernities, Tourism And The Archaeological Imaginary
Organized By
Lynn Meskell (USA)
Session Details
Theorizing ethics remains an inchoate subject in archaeology. Part of this problem rests with the illusion that the subjects of our research are dead and buried, and that our ‘scientific’ research goals are paramount. Archaeologists have traditionally operated under the assumption that they are not implicated in the representation and struggles of living peoples and that all such political engagement is negatively charged. While fieldwork is still shrouded in mystique for ethnographers, it is generally considered mundane in archaeology. The tactics of fieldwork, its interventions and ramifications, have only recently been called into question. It has taken time to convince archaeologists that ours is a subjective and political enterprise that is far from agenda-free.
Part of our contemporary ethical engagement lies with constructions of national modernity and presentations of heritage to a range of communities, specifically through the lens of tourism. This is an outgrowth of the recognition that archaeology, like anthropology, is a multi-sited discipline. Exploration of these interactions form the core of this session.
Issues of performance and authenticity within a spatial fix are key, for both archaeologists and tourists. Moreover, there are complex relationships between tourists and indigenous populations of the places at which those tourists gaze: privileging the past in the present has serious and often violent consequences for those who happen to dwell among the ancients. How are issues of representation reconciled when archaeologists are separated, but not disentangled, from the construction and effects of national heritage? How does archaeological tourism interfere and transform local, national and global modernities? Archaeologists first need to probe the
professional interiors of their own discipline and the complex machinations involved therein, to recognize their role in the national and tourist imaginary and to renegotiate their place within local and global communities. This session interrogates inherent problems in legislating or codifying professional practice globally: a shared world heritage might also have residual colonial inflections. Others scholars have posited that a relationship defined by trusteeship might alleviate potential problems over responsibility. All such archaeological engagements must be contextually examined.
Speakers:
Pedro Funari
Ian Lilley
Emma Blake
Jane Lydon
Richard Handler
Martin Hall
Rosemary Joyce
Sandra Scham
Chris Gosden
Quetzil Castenada
Ben Smith
Helaine Silverman
Ayfer Bartu
Lynn Meskell
Presentations
The Politics Of Heritage Presentation In The Middle East
Sandra Scham Tourism and archaeology in Brazil
Pedro Paulo A. Funari
‘A Bushman Is Not Forever’: Negative Heritage And The San Of Southern Africa
Geoffrey Blundell and Benjamin W. Smith The times they are a’changin’ – but for whom? Archaeologists and tourism in Australia
Ian Lilley
Confessions Of An Archaeological Tour Guide
Rosemary A. Joyce Destination Resorts and the Commodification of Heritage
Martin Hall
Object Lessons: Memorialising Colonial Australia
Jane Lydon Towards An Even Playing Field: Parity And Practice On An Archaeological Project In Sicily
Emma Blake
Modernity And Its Prehistories: Presenting Çatalhöyük
Ayfer Bartu Incidents Of Travel In Chichén Itzá (FILM & DISCUSSION)
Jeffrey Himpele (CA State, Fullerton) and Quetzil Castaneda (University of Houston)
Session Time
Day Wednesday Date 25th June
Time 9AM-1PM Room Pryzbyla Center A
Collecting Material Heritage: Past And Present Orthodoxies
Organized By
Neil Brodie and Katherine Tubb
Session Details
Contact: Neil Brodie (njb1012@cam.ac.uk)
The private collecting of archaeological objects dates back to the seventeenth century at least and has exerted a profound influence upon modern archaeological theory and practice. It has fostered an awareness and appreciation (or deprecation) of past cultural traditions and provided a secure base for the development of the typological method. Many pioneer archaeologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were enthusiastic collectors, and close relations between the antiquities trade and archaeology persisted into the 1960s and later. However, since the 1960s, there has been an increasingly vocal realization among archaeologists that objects appearing for sale on the market are not simply, nor predominantly, benign throw-ups from old private collections or from agricultural or building operations, but have in all probability been looted. Thus there is an emerging orthodoxy which holds that indiscriminate collecting is destructive as it causes the plunder of archaeological sites and monuments and should, in consequence, be discouraged or banned. Papers in this session will examine the ways in which collecting fuels the destruction of archaeological heritage, its consequences for our understanding of the past, and will also consider possible solutions.
While the link between the market and archaeological looting has never been accepted by dealers in antiquities and has sometimes been challenged by archaeologists sympathetic to trade, most archaeologists have been keen for the governments of so-called ‘demand countries’ to recognize this threat to the material heritage. However, lately, within academia, a new set of perspectives has been aired. It is claimed that the market-led destruction of archaeological sites might not be severe, or, even if severe, irrelevant outside the current ‘Western’ obsession with preserving the past. It is further argued that the aesthetic or empathetic object-oriented approaches that are realized through collecting are no less legitimate than the contextual or relational frames of modern archaeological praxis. Thus papers in this session will also consider whether these claims are substantive and if collecting and the antiquities trade which sustains it can be accepted within an eclectic and democratic appreciation of the past, or, against this, whether they are better understood within their university context as rhetorical sallies designed to provoke thought and foster controversy.
Participants
Neil Brodie
Patty Gerstenblith
Robert Hicks
Helena Jaeschke
Juliette van Krieken
Paula Kay Lazrus
Staffan Lunden
S.K. Pachauri
Colin Renfrew
Marina Papa Sokal
Kathryn Walker Tubb
Presentations
Changing The Ethos: The Museum Spectrum And The Implications Of Due Diligence
Colin Renfrew Artifacts and Emotion
Kathryn Walker Tubb
A Model Investigative Protocol For Looting
Robert D. Hicks (Law Enforcement Services, Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, Richmond, Virginia, USA) Illicit Trafficking and Antiques Trade in India Recovery, Renewed Efforts to Save and Preserve India’s Heritage
S. K. Pachauri
Law, Politics And Archaeology: The U.S. Legal Response To The Protection Of The World Cultural Heritage
Marina Papa Sokal Supporting and promoting the idea of a shared cultural patrimony
Paula Kay Lazrus
Who Wins And Who Loses? Morality And The Regulated Market
Neil Brodie Recent United States legal developments in the protection of the archaeological heritage
Patty Gerstenblith
Session Time
Day Thursday Date 26th June
Time 9-11am Room No Details Available
The Stories We Tell … The Stories We Don’t Tell
Organized By
Meredith A. Fraser (USA)and Robert R. Sauders (USA)
Session Details
Archaeological practice, research and knowledge are crucial elements in the production of cultural narratives concerning the experiences of past peoples and communities, yet these presentations of experiences are situated and function within the realities of contemporary communities. The interface between past and contemporary communities is negotiated through the production of archaeological knowledge and circulated via written and verbal communications. Thus, archaeological practitioners, as the primary actors throughout the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of archaeological materials, dramatically impact and influence the construction of narratives about past people, communities and experiences. This essentially establishes archaeological practitioners as “gatekeepers”, exerting their power through choices in what research questions are posed, what people and communities are examined, and what narratives are canonized within the larger archaeological knowledge base.
The self-realizing chronicles of human experience that plague contemporary archaeological research too often ignore and marginalize alternative constructions of the past that highlight the diversity of past experiences. This session provides a forum for “the stories we don’t tell” and offers an opportunity to grapple with the very real effects and outcomes experienced by people and communities who are neglected throughout conventional archaeological dialogues and notions of cultural heritage. Specifically, the session will emphasize papers that expose how the abstract discussion of marginalized archaeological narratives translates into the reality of inequitable public consumerism, particularly in the form of museum exhibits, media publications and tourism.
Presentations
In Small Voices Forgotten: Archaeological Stories Of And For Children
Jane Eva Baxter (DePaul University) Dis/abling Strategies? An Exploration of Archaeology and Dis/ability
Meredith A. Fraser (American University, USA)
Creating Discursive Space: Strategies For Incorporating Marginalized Narratives In Mediterranean Archaeology
Louise A. Hitchcock (University of California, Los Angeles) Different Vikings: Hidden narratives of early medieval Scandinavia
Neil Price (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
Beyond Public Archaeology : A New Avenue For Integration Of Public Communities In Archaeological Research
Robert R. Sauders (American University, USA) Preserving World Cultural Heritage in War Zones
Adel Yahya (Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange)
Session Time
Day Monday Date 23rd June
Time 4-6PM Room Life Cycle Auditoriu
UNESCO And Cultural Heritage Preservation
Organized By
Yorke Rowan (USA) and Gilbert Pwiti
Session Details
–
Presentations
Population Trends And Cultural Heritage Preservation In Central America
Frederick W. Lange (Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University; Adjunct Professor, Universidad UPOLI, Managua, Nicaragua) El Santuario Histórico De Machu Picchu. Vacíos Y Defectos En El Proceso De Planificación En Un Bien Arqueológico Y Natural De Valor Universal
Alberto Martorell Carreño
Entering The World Stage As A World Heritage Site: The Pambamarca Fortress Complex, Pichincha, Ecuador
Samuel V. Connell (CILHI Anthropologist, US Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, 310 Worchester Avenue, Hickam AFB, Hawaii and UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Research Associate, A210 Fowler, Los Angeles, CA ), Ana Lucía Gonzalez and Chad Gifford International Charters of Restoration and their relevance in Reconstructing Heritage Resources in Shrajah, UAE
Samia Rab (Assistant Professor of Architecture & Heritage Management, School of Architecture & Design, American University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 26666, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)
The Promotion Of Indigenous Archaeological Heritage
Sue Smalldon Heritage displays along Hadrian’s Wall and their Global context
James Bruhn (Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, DH1 3LE, UK)
Tourism And The Commodification Of Culture: Ethics In Presenting Rock Art Through Tourism
Thabo Manetsi (University of Cape Town)
Session Time
Day Wednesday Date 25th June
Time 4-6PM Room Pryzbyla Center A