Archaeology and Capitalism: From Ethics to Politics (One World Archaeology)

300 Pages·2008·1.23 MB·English

by  Yannis Hamilakis

Archaeology and Capitalism
One World Archaeology Series
Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress
Series Editors: Joan Gero, Mark Leone and Robin Torrence
One World Archaeology volumes contain carefully edited selections of the exemplary
papers presented at the World Archaeology Congress (WAC), held every four years,
and intercongress meetings. WAC gives place to considerations of power and politics
in framing archaeological questions and results. The organization also gives place
and privilege to minorities who have often been silenced or regarded as beyond
capable of making main line contributions to the field. All royalties from the series are
used to help the wider work of the organization. The series is published by Left Coast
Press, Inc. beginning with volume 48.
54 Archaeology and Capitalism, Yannis Hamilakis and Philip Duke (eds.)
53 Living Under the Shadow, John Grattan and Robin Torrence (eds.)
52 Envisioning Landscape, Dan Hicks, Laura McAtackney and Graham Fairclough (eds.)
51 Rethinking Agriculture, Tim Denham, José Iriarte and Luc Vrydaghs (eds.)
50 AFearsome Heritage, John Schofield and Wayne Cocroft (eds.)
49 Archaeology to Delight and Instruct, Heather Burke and Claire Smith (eds.)
48 African Re-Genesis, Jay B. Haviser and Kevin C. MacDonald (eds.)
Previous volumes in this series, available from Routledge:
47 Indigenous Archaeologies 24 Social Construction of the Past
46 Archaeologies of the British 23 Sacred Sites, Sacred Places
45 Natural Disasters and Cultural Change 22 Tropical Archaeobotany
44 Matériel Culture 21 Archaeology and the
43 The Dead and Their Possessions Information Age
42 Illicit Antiquities 20 The Archaeology of Africa
41 Destruction and Conservation of 19 Origins of Human Behaviour
Cultural Property 18 From the Baltic to the Black Sea
40 Madness, Disability & Social Exclusion 17 The Excluded Past
39 The Archaeology of Dry Lands 16 Signifying Animals
38 The Archaeology of Difference 15 Hunters of the Recent Past
37 Time and Archaeology 14 What’s New?
36 The Constructed Past 13 Foraging and Farming
35 Archaeology and Language IV 12 The Politics of the Past
34 Archaeology and Language III 11 Centre and Periphery
33 Cultural Resource Management in 10 Archaeological Approaches to
Contemporary Society Cultural Identity
32 Prehistory of Food 9 Archaeological Heritage Management
31 Historical Archaeology in the Modern World
30 The Archaeology and Anthropology 8 Conflict in the Archaeology of Living
of Landscape Traditions
29 Archaeology and Language II 7 Animals into Art
28 Early Human Behaviour in the Global 6 The Meaning of Things
Context 5 Who Needs the Past?
27 Archaeology and Language I 4 State and Society
26 Time, Process and Structured 3 Domination and Resistance
Transformation in Archaeology 2 The Walking Larder
25 The Presented Past 1 What Is an Animal?
Archaeology and Capitalism
From Ethics to Politics
Edited by
Yannis Hamilakis and Philip Duke
WalnutCreek,California
LEFTCOASTPRESS,INC.
1630NorthMainStreet,#400
WalnutCreek,CA94596
http://www.LCoastPress.com
Copyright©2007byLeftCoastPress,Inc.;firstpaperbackedition2009
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyany
means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise,
withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher.
ISBN978–1-59874–270–1hardcover
ISBN978–1-59874–271–8paperback
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Archaeologyandcapitalism/YannisHamilakisandPhilipDuke,editors.
p. cm. – (One world archaeology series ; 54) Includes bibliographical
referencesandindex.
1. Archaeology – Social aspects. 2. Archaeology – Moral and ethical
aspects.3.Archaeologists–Professionalethics.4.Antiquities–Collection
andpreservation–Moralandethicalaspects.5.Archaeology–Political
aspects.6.Archaeology–Philosophy.7.Postcolonialism.8.Capitalism–
Socialaspects.9.Capitalism–Politicalaspects.10.Capitalism–Moraland
ethicalaspects.I.Hamilakis,Yannis,1966-II.Duke,P.G.
CC175.A7242007
930.1–dc22
2007025526
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
(cid:0)™ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48–1992.
0954321
Contents
List of Illustrations 7
Foreword: Politics Is a Dirty Word, but Then Archaeology
Is a Dirty Business
Randall H. McGuire 9
Acknowledgments 11
Part 1: Introduction 13
1. From Ethics to Politics 15
Yannis Hamilakis
Part 2 Ethics in Question: Introduction 41
Philip Duke
2. When Theory, Practice and Policy Collide, 45
or Why Do Archaeologists Support
Cultural Property Claims?
Alexander A. Bauer, Shanel Lindsay and Stephen Urice
3. Ethical Challenges to a Postcolonial Archaeology: 59
The Legacy of Scientific Colonialism
George Nicholas and Julie Hollowell
4. Cultural Sensitivity, Science and Ethical 83
Imperatives: Contemporary Archaeology in the
Southwestern United States
Charles R. Riggs
5. What Does It Mean ‘To Give the Past Back to 99
the People’? Archaeology and Ethics in the Postcolony
Nick Shepherd
Part 3 Archaeology in Capitalism, Archaeology As 115
Capitalism: Introduction Philip Duke
6. British Commercial Archaeology: Antiquarians and 119
Labourers; Developers and Diggers
Paul Everill
7. Ethics, Capitalism and Public Archaeology in Brazil 137
Pedro Paulo A. Funari and Erika M. Robrahn-González
8. An Ethical Archaeology in the Near East: 151
Confronting Empire, War and Colonisation
Tamima Orra Mourad
9. Archaeology within Marketing Capitalism 169
Alice B. Kehoe
10. ‘Sustainable’ Heritage? Public Archaeological 179
Interpretation and the Marketed Past
Neil Asher Silberman
11. Contemporary Museum Practice in Cusco, Peru 195
Helaine Silverman
Part 4 Ethical Futures, Emancipatory Archaeologies: 213
Introduction Yannis Hamilakis
12. ‘Grabe, Wo Du Stehst!’ An Archaeology of Perpetrators 217
Reinhard Bernbeck and Susan Pollock
13. The Archaeology of the Spanish Civil War: Recovering 235
Memory and Historical Justice
Ermengol Gassiot Ballbe`, Joaquim Oltra Puigdoménech,
Elena Sintes Olives and Dawnie Wolfe Steadman
14. The Culture of Caring and Its Destruction in the 247
Middle East: Women’s Work, Water,
War and Archaeology
Maggie Ronayne
15. Ethics, Objectivity and Emancipatory Archaeology 267
Dean J. Saitta
About the Contributors 281
Index 291
List of Illustrations
Figures
Figure 6.1 Gender differentiation across the age groups of UK 127
archaeologists.
Figure 6.2 Field experience amongst UK archaeologists. 128
Figure 8.1 Breasted’s ‘Promising Fertile Crescent’, and research 160
headquarters.
Figure 11.1 Looking up at the Museo Inka, Cusco, Peru. 197
Figure 11.2 Traditional weavers from the community 198
of Chinchero.
Figure 11.3 An example of the typical vitrines in Museo Inka. 199
Figure 11.4 Museo de Arte Precolombino (MAP), Cusco, Peru. 201
Figure 11.5 An example of the beautiful vitrines and display 203
pedestals at MAP.
Figure 11.6 The Colonial Period in MAP. 208
Figure 12.1 Topographie des Terrors, Berlin. 223
Figure 12.2 Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin. 225
Figure 14.1 Map of Ilısu Dam Project Area. 249
Tables
Table 6.1 Archaeologists’ full-time salary compared to other 124
occupations in the UK in 1998.
Table 6.2 Average archaeological salaries in the UK in 1998. 125
Table 6.3 Average archaeological salaries in the UK in 2003. 125
Table 6.4 Archaeologists’ full-time salary compared to other 125
occupations in the UK in 2003.
Table 6.5 Gender differentiation within the archaeological 126
profession in the UK.

Foreword: Politics Is a Dirty Word, but Then
Archaeology Is a Dirty Business
Randall H. McGuire
Thirty years ago the Mexican archaeologists Rebeca Panameño and
Enrique Nalda (1979) asked: Arqueología para quien? (Archaeology for
Whom?) This was and remains a radical question for archaeology. Radical
because it implies that archaeology is not a selfless search for knowledge.
Instead, the question asserts that archaeology serves the interests of spe-
cific social groups. This question is the basic query of an explicitly polit-
ical archaeology. It is a question that English-speaking archaeologists
would take up in a serious way in the 1980s and early 1990s. But since that
time, calls for archaeology as political action have gradually faded away.
The authors in this book have revived this query and tried to answer it.
They argue that archaeology in the West has consistently served the inter-
ests of capitalism and this is something that they want to change.
In the English-speaking world, politics is a dirty word. People spurn
politics as a grubby business tainted by dishonesty, strong feelings and
self-interest. In popular discourse, politics is contrasted with dispassion-
ate, objective science. Many people resist any explicit discussions of pol-
itics, because political judgments are emotional and political discussions
often acrimonious. People are passionate about politics because they are
about what we believe and who we think we are. Political positions neces-
sarily involve moral and ethical attitudes about the world. These atti-
tudes invoke powerful zeal in people. We are taught as young children to
exclude politics from polite conversation because politics create tension
and hostility between individuals. Politics also have real consequences
for peoples’ lives. These consequences are often pernicious. People lose
their land or their jobs; people starve, die, or are imprisoned. All of this
suggests that the safest thing to do is not ‘make things political’.
Many archaeologists will view the overt political agenda of this book
with alarm and unease. After the political and theoretical turmoil of the
later 20th century, these archaeologists look forward to a new century free
of theory wars, political struggles and conflicts with descendant commu-
nities. In their minds, the codification of ethics, the bureaucratization of
9