Cosmopolitan archaeologies

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Bibliographic Information

Cosmopolitan archaeologies

Lynn Meskell, editor

(Material worlds)

Duke University Press, 2009

  • : pbk.

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p.[249]-283) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

An important collection, Cosmopolitan Archaeologies delves into the politics of contemporary archaeology in an increasingly complex international environment. The contributors explore the implications of applying the cosmopolitan ideals of obligation to others and respect for cultural difference to archaeological practice, showing that those ethics increasingly demand the rethinking of research agendas. While cosmopolitan archaeologies must be practiced in contextually specific ways, what unites and defines them is archaeologists' acceptance of responsibility for the repercussions of their projects, as well as their undertaking of heritage practices attentive to the concerns of the living communities with whom they work. These concerns may require archaeologists to address the impact of war, the political and economic depredations of past regimes, the livelihoods of those living near archaeological sites, or the incursions of transnational companies and institutions. The contributors describe various forms of cosmopolitan engagement involving sites that span the globe. They take up the links between conservation, natural heritage and ecology movements, and the ways that local heritage politics are constructed through international discourses and regulations. They are attentive to how communities near heritage sites are affected by archaeological fieldwork and findings, and to the complex interactions that local communities and national bodies have with international sponsors and universities, conservation agencies, development organizations, and NGOs. Whether discussing the toll of efforts to preserve biodiversity on South Africans living near Kruger National Park, the ways that UNESCO's global heritage project universalizes the ethic of preservation, or the Open Declaration on Cultural Heritage at Risk that the Archaeological Institute of America sent to the U.S. government before the Iraq invasion, the contributors provide nuanced assessments of the ethical implications of the discursive production, consumption, and governing of other people's pasts. Contributors. O. Hugo Benavides, Lisa Breglia, Denis Byrne, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal, Ian Hodder, Ian Lilley, Jane Lydon, Lynn Meskell, Sandra Arnold Scham

Table of Contents

Introduction: Cosmopolitan Heritage Ethics / Lynn Meskell 1 1. Young and Free: The Australian Past in a Global Future / Jane Lydon 28 2. Strangers and Brothers? Heritage, Human Rights, and Cosmopolitan Archaeology in Oceania / Ian Lilley 48 3. Archaeology and the Fortress of Rationality / Denis Byrne 68 4. the Nature of Culture in Kruger National Park / Lynn Meskell 89 5. Vernacular Cosmopolitanism: An Archaeological Critique of Universalistic Reason / Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal 113 6. The Archaeologist as a World Citizen: On the Morals of Heritage Preservation and Destruction / Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh 140 7. "Time's Wheel Runs Back": Conversations the the Middle Eastern Past / Sandra Arnold Scham 166 8. Mavili's Voice / Ian Hodder 184 9. "Walking Around Like They Own the Place": Quotidian Cosmopolitanism at a Maya and World Heritage Archaeological Site / Lisa Breglia 205 10. Translating Ecuadorian Modernities: Pre-Hispanic Archaeology and the Reproduction of Global Difference / O. Hugo Benavides 228 Bibliography 249 Contributors 285 Index 289

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